Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Energy on 9 February 2022, Official Report, col 962, if he will publish the evidence base for the conclusion that new oil and gas extraction in the North Sea will reduce the UK’s dependence on imports.
The UK Continental Shelf is a mature oil and gas basin, where production is declining. The UK’s domestic demand for these products is also projected to decline, as the UK transitions to cleaner sources of energy, however the UK is expected to remain a net importer of both oil and gas, even if new fields are developed. A faster decline in UK production would result in the UK importing more oil and gas from other countries on a net basis.
The Oil and Gas Authority publishes projections of oil and gas production in the UK; these projections (including comparisons with forecasts of demand) are available at
www.ogauthority.co.uk/data-centre/data-downloads-and-publications/production-projections.