𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Britain cannot “just stop oil” despite government attempts to wean the country off fossil fuels which are making the UK poorer, dirtier and less secure, a report has warned. A paper from the Institute of Economic Affairs shreds Labour’s case for ending North Sea oil and warns that it will damage the economy, drive up emissions and threaten the country’s energy security.

Ms Coutinho said: “Whether it’s for jobs or growth, Ed Miliband should take note of Kathryn’s report and end his mad ban on new oil and gas licences, axe the Energy Profits Levy, and back the North Sea.” The report, authored by energy expert Kathryn Porter of Watt-Logic, reveals that replacing domestic oil and gas production with imports would increase emissions by around 50% and could even risk shortages in winter by the end of this year

It blasts Labour’s war on the North Sea and suggests it would make the country’s carbon footprint worse. In a harrowing prediction it lays bare that the UK would still need around 168 million barrels of oil in 2050, the year Labour want to hit net zero as the country would still need the fossil fuel for plastics, fertilisers and medicines.

Thousands have already lost their jobs in the sector, and the report predicts that 1,000 could lose their jobs a month by the early 2030s. It lays the blame at the feet of the windfall tax, which levies North Sea producers with a 78% tax, which has seen independent producers paying more than international energy companies.

Ms Porter said: “Oil and gas producers are not the enemy – they produce goods used by all of us every day. The windfall tax was supposed to target Shell and BP but instead it has hammered independents, driven investment overseas and vastly accelerated the decline of important tax receipts.

She warned: “Unless we change course rapidly, Britain will be increasingly reliant on dirtier, more expensive imports – and less secure on cold winter days when we need energy most.”

Lord Frost, Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs, said: “Pushing up costs and imagining that we can simply eliminate oil and gas in sectors in which there is no satisfactory replacement risk bringing disaster. It would be quite simply destructive and counter-productive to ‘just stop oil’.”

A DESNZ spokesperson dismissed the report saying: “Issuing new licences to explore new fields will not take a penny off bills, cannot make us energy secure, and will only accelerate the worsening climate crisis. We’re giving the sector and its investors the long-term certainty to invest and support jobs through our plan for the North Sea and by replacing the Energy Profits Levy when it ends by 2030, or earlier if its price floor is triggered.”

They added: “This will protect jobs now and create the next generation of skilled roles, including over 40,000 new clean energy jobs in Scotland by 2030.”