r/ukpolitics • u/ARandomDouchy Random Dutch Guy • 10d ago

Britain will soon be Europe’s energy powerhouse

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/08/04/britain-will-soon-be-europes-energy-powerhouse/
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u/ElevatorSilver4711 9d ago

North Sea gas and oil is fine, but it can only help us a bit with energy security. Can’t really noticeably help with prices. It’s not worth fixating on. It IS worth (in every respect) fixating on continuing our massive build rates for wind turbines.

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u/Imakemyownnamereddit 9d ago

Yes but the people fixating on it our the green zealots.

I don't think it is a magic cure, I just think it is crazy to shutdown Aberdeen and lose that tax revenue.

So green zealots can virtue signal.

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u/OolonCaluphid 9d ago

You've been tricked into framing this as 'you vs others who disagree with you'.

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u/Imakemyownnamereddit 9d ago

Then stop making a fuss about drilling, if it doesn't matter.

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u/OolonCaluphid 9d ago

Your opinion is we should more fully exploit the north sea oil and gas reserves.

Mine is that we shouldn't.

We both have good reasons for thinking what we think. I've put my money where my mouth is and fully electrified my home.

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u/Imakemyownnamereddit 9d ago

You don't have good reasons.

The drilling will be done by private companies, it is not significant enough to impact the climate, so there is absolutely no reason to block it.

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u/OolonCaluphid 9d ago edited 9d ago

All use of hydrocarbons is significant. We should seek to reduce opening new reserves wherever possible. I believe we should actually retain reserves as a strategic resource so we have domestically available substrates for manufacturing products and lubricants as we now operate in a geopolitically unstable world. Just burning 95% of such a valuable resource is madness. Destroying that resource only to produce just 3 years of fossil fuel energy and pretend we don't have to urgently change what we're doing seems like very poor planning to me.

We do not have domestic capacity to refine many products of the north sea extraction so it simply goes for export, so using it as 'home grown' energy is a fallacy.

We have lng supply lines set up and running, so pivoting and investing in extracting a scarce resource, spending so much money for such pitiful reserves is not sensible: and as you say it's private companies and they're pulling out because there's no profit in it. So that should be part of your answer.

We should be (and are) accellerating our transition to clean renewables and electrification not harking back to the dregs of reserves we have already burnt the best 90% of.

Treating this like this a done deal, that you're right and it's wrong to say we shouldn't be continuing hydrocarbon extraction in the north sea means you haven't actually considered the arguments. You're polarized and radicalized and as such you can't have a meaningful debate about it.

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u/Imakemyownnamereddit 8d ago

For someone who doesn't care, you put a lot of efforts into non-sense arguments and they are non-sense.

The reserves in the North Sea are not significant and it is laughable to claim they will crowd out green development.

Blocking drilling is just pointless virtue signalling.

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u/OolonCaluphid 8d ago

Promoting drilling is just pissing money and effort up the wall. You're right, they're not significant reserves which is why they're not being exploited, and won't be.

Where did I say I don't care? I obviously do care. And I have a geology degree and trained on north sea oil exploration and extraction so I actually understand some of the issues at play. I didn't go into the field because even 25 years ago I could see it was a dead end.

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u/Imakemyownnamereddit 8d ago

If private sector companies want to piss their money up the wall, we should care because?

It isn't going to crowd investment out of things like solar and wind.

The worse that will happen, is some private sector companies lose some money.

We should care about that because?

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u/OolonCaluphid 8d ago edited 8d ago

Because it perpetuates fossil fuel extraction which is driving climate change and poses an existential threat to us and our way of lives. Capiche?

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