Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has vowed to maximise extraction of oil and gas in the North Sea if her party wins power, calling it 'absurd' to leave vital resources untapped while neighbours like Norway extract them from the same seabed.
In a speech planned for Aberdeen, Badenoch will announce an overhaul of the North Sea Transition Authority, dropping the word 'transition' and replacing its 12-page mandate with a simple order to extract the maximum possible amount of fossil fuel. She argues Britain 'cannot afford not to be doing everything to get hydrocarbons out the ground' to boost growth.
Badenoch said: 'We are in the absurd situation where our country is leaving vital resources untapped while neighbours such as Norway extract them from the same seabed. Britain has already decarbonised more than every other major economy since 1990, yet we face some of the highest energy prices in the developed world. This is not sustainable and it cannot continue.'
She added: 'That is why I am calling time on this unilateral act of economic disarmament and Labour’s impossible ideology of net zero by 2050. So, a future Conservative government will scrap all mandates for the North Sea beyond maximising extraction.'
Energy and net zero secretary Ed Miliband has accused the Conservatives of being 'anti-science' by abandoning the political consensus on net zero. A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said the government is delivering a fair and orderly transition in the North Sea, with major investment in offshore wind and carbon capture, and reiterated the manifesto commitment not to issue new licences for exploring new fields.
