UK offers over 30 oil and gas licenses in offshore wind farm sites

The UK has offered 31 new oil and gas licences to operators at sites which are meant for offshore wind licensing.

The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) has offered 31 licences in the third tranche of the NSTA’s 33rd licensing round. A total of 82 offers to 50 companies have now been made in the round which attracted 115 bids from 76 companies across 257 blocks and part-blocks. The licences offered in the round could add an estimated 600 mmboe up to 2060, or 545 mmboe by 2050.

For those in favour of more oil and gas projects, this is seen as good news. Namely, there are currently over 280 active oil and gas fields in the North Sea and by 2030 around 180 of those will have ceased production due to natural decline. Offshore Energies UK believes that, without fresh investments, the UK will be reliant on oil and gas imports for 80% of its needs by 2030.

Most of this would be regular news for a standard licensing round. But these licenses, apart from being licenses for fossil fuels, provoked ire from environmentalists as those areas were meant for more offshore wind farms.

Supporters of the scheme believe that if any of the sites that should host wind farms prove suitable for oil and gas production, such platforms will be able to use power from the wind turbines to lower emissions. An agreement will have to be in place between the oil and gas firms and the offshore wind developers for drilling locations.

Rishi Sunak’s former top net zero proponent, Chris Skidmore, who recently quit in protest of the government’s climate policies, was very vocal about this and told The Guardian that this was a deeply irresponsible and divisive move that went against all advice from the International Energy Agency and would further set back the UK’s climate reputation.

“Instead of wind powering new oil, the investment should instead be in more wind and renewables. More fossil fuels will only create stranded assets and stranded jobs at a time when demand for oil and gas is falling,” he added.

Greenpeace of course shared the sentiment. Doug Parr, policy director at Greenpeace UK, compared this decision to using a nicotine patch to roll a cigarette.

“It’s hard to think of a worse use of clean electricity from windfarms than powering the dirty industry that’s driving the climate crisis,” Parr stated.

However, there is something to be said of oil production rapidly declining in the UK, whichever side of the debate one might stand on.

The North Sea Transition Authority said that the UK replaced just 3% of production with new reserves in 2022, meaning only 1 new barrel was invested for every 33 existing barrels produced today. OEUK believes 20 fields stopped production last year, whilst only two will have started production. For every one oil and gas well drilled, around three are closed.

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