Comment: New oil is a lose-lose for the offshore economy  

This week, Oceana UK took the government to court over 28 licences for oil and gas exploration. I sat in court while our lawyers detailed exactly why we are convinced that these licences are unlawful and unconscionable. 

Our legal grounds are based firmly around our mission: to win UK seas the protection they deserve. We know that when these licences were granted by the previous government, accidental oil spills were excluded from environmental assessments. 

This is not a trivial omission. There were more than two oil or chemical spills every day last year from oil and gas developments in UK waters, our analysis showed. These incidents resulted in over 82,000 kg of oil spilling into the sea – with serious implications for wildlife.

The deepening of the climate crisis caused by burning the extracted oil and gas was also omitted from environmental assessments. Despite the stark evidence that global heating is already having serious impacts on ocean life.

On top of all this, the decision to grant these licences was taken after ignoring expert advice from the government’s own nature advisors, and three-quarters of these licences are located within marine protected areas. These areas are home to wildlife such as puffins, porpoises and grey seals – all gravely vulnerable to the harm caused by oil and gas developments.

Although not part of our case, we know we have the backing of the British public: three-quarters of people in the UK are opposed to oil and gas developments in protected areas of the sea, polling has shown.

People and planet

So, the environmental case against new oil and gas is strong. And that case only gets stronger if we include coastal economies and energy security.

The writing is on the wall for North Sea oil – it is a declining reserve that will only become more difficult and expensive to extract as time goes by. Following oil lobbyists set on squeezing every last drop from a tired ocean will lead the UK, marine habitats, and offshore workers to a dead end.

Why would we choose this poorly managed decline over a prosperous future for coastal communities and a country powered by clean, renewable energy?

The answer is not expense: new North Sea drilling won’t cut energy bills because we don’t own the oil and gas. Nor is it energy security: around 80% of the oil produced in the North Sea is exported. And the idea that profiteering international oil giants would sell the extracted fuels to the UK at a discount is fanciful at best.

What could provide us with cheap, secure, homegrown energy and green jobs is renewables. In fact, just one new offshore windfarm would negate the need for new North Sea gas fields, research has shown.

Promises promises

Despite running on an election promise of a future built on clean, reliable sources of energy, the Labour government is defending the decisions to grant these further 28 licences, rather than dropping its legal defence and allowing the courts to decide, as it did in the recent Rosebank oilfield case.

Watching the phalanx of lawyers on the government’s payroll in court brought home to me what a waste of taxpayers’ money this is. The government has been clear it is strapped for cash – surely this money could be better spent investing in a just transition to renewable energy that would lower household bills and safeguard coastal economies?

The future we want

Granting these licences while ignoring the environmental consequences is not only unlawful, but will serve no-one, leaving not only lifeless seas, but betrayed communities.

Failure to act to end new oil and gas will leave those whose livelihoods depend on offshore industries high and dry, but wise investment could give us the future we want and need.

Right now, Oceana is standing up in court for UK seas, and by doing that we are also standing up for a stable climate, thriving fisheries and flourishing coastal jobs. We can have all this and more, but we need to chart a clear course to end new oil and gas.

 Hugo Tagholm is Oceana UK CEO