Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will undertake analysis of the potential impact of increased domestic gas exploration and extraction in the North Sea on achievement of UK net zero carbon emissions reduction targets.

UK gas production has been declining for some years, and the UK is likely to be a net importer of gas to 2050. New exploration is part of delivering an orderly and net zero compliant management of that decline. Gas produced from the North Sea has a lower global emissions footprint than imported LNG. In the North Sea Transition deal the UK’s offshore sector further committed to 50% production emission reductions by 2030. The Government's Net Zero Strategy sets out how that target is consistent with the UK meeting its Nationally Determined Contribution and Carbon Budgets.