Licensed Oil and Gas Fields: Emissions

Lord Offord of Garvel Excerpts

Tuesday 11th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, we are of course in discussions with His Majesty’s Treasury over the next spending review and it would be premature for me to comment on any of the detail. Clearly, carbon capture, usage and storage have a very important role to play in the future, and I have noted my noble friend’s elegant bid for investment in Scotland in that regard.

[Lord Offord of Garvel (Con)]

My Lords, the Government have repeatedly refused to clarify whether Jackdaw and Rosebank will be shut down under their policy of refusing to grant any new oil and gas licences. That is despite both licences being granted in 2022 and 2023 in recognition of their contribution to net zero and to our national energy security. Will the Minister please clarify that this is not another example of government policy being dictated by lawyers rather than by politicians? How does he expect the Chancellor to fulfil her growth agenda with the most expensive energy prices in the OECD?

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, the best way to deal with energy prices is to move from being utterly reliant on international gas prices subject to the volatility that has arisen from the invasion of Ukraine by Putin. That is why we must move towards clean power as soon as we possibly can, to give ourselves energy security.

I cannot answer that question in relation to Rosebank and Jackdaw. The original consent decisions were subject to judicial review, which was paused pending the outcome of the Finch judgment. In the light of the Finch judgment, as I have said, we are consulting on new environmental impact assessments. When we have produced those, it will then be up to developers to make applications for consents according to the new guidelines we have produced. I cannot forecast the outcome of that process.