UK Climate Minister: Fracking And Offering 100 New North Sea Oil Leases Good For The Environment

[hatrack]

Fracking and drilling for new oil and gas in the North Sea is green and good for the environment, Liz Truss’s new climate minister said on Wednesday. Graham Stuart insisted that awarding more than 100 licences to companies for North Sea drilling, covering almost 900 locations, and rolling out fracking across the countryside, were green policies. He told MPs on the environmental audit committee that drilling for new fossil fuels would help the UK reach net zero by 2050.

“It’s good for jobs and good for the economy and it is good for the environment,” said Stuart. He argued that as UK oil and gas production was on a declining trajectory, at a faster pace than required by the International Energy Agency, opening up new fields was green because they would have a lower carbon impact than importing oil and gas which was extracted in a less sustainable way. He called the fossil fuel extraction pioneered by Shell and BP in the North Sea “world-leading”. “Producing [oil and gas] domestically creates only half the emissions around production and transportation than importing it from around the world,” he said. “In terms of the economy and the environment, domestic production is a good thing and we should all get behind it … it is good for the economy, good for jobs and stops us giving money to dubious regimes.”

EDIT

“They have developed new technologies to minimise flaring and now you are seeing companies like BP and Shell exporting that to other parts of the world. It’s more efficient, it’s good for emissions and it is us playing the leading role that we should in the transition.” Lewis responded: “So I hear what you are saying, but it seems from my perspective and, I imagine, the public’s perspective, that you are talking about 100 new licences, more exploration, more oil coming out of the ground. It sounds like you are peeing on our heads and telling us it is raining.”

It was also pointed out to Stuart that Lord Deben, the chair of the climate change committee, the government’s statutory adviser, had warned that future oil and gas production in the UK risked undermining the credibility of the its global leadership on climate change, and sent the wrong signal to the world. But Stuart disagreed: “You have given me these assertions from these various bodies.” “Scientific research, I think it is called,” said Lewis.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/12/uk-fracking-and-oil-drilling-good-for-environment-says-climate-minister-graham-stuart

[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. He might have a small point, domestic production is probably a bit 'less bad' ... BUT

Producing [oil and gas] domestically creates only half the emissions around production and transportation than importing it from around the world

I doubt you're saving that much in emissions here %-wise versus the amount of CO2 that will result from burning it. It's mostly carried on ships and/or pipelines, both of which are reasonably efficient.

They have developed new technologies to minimise flaring and now you are seeing companies like BP and Shell exporting that to other parts of the world.

They can develop tech like this using existing fields, you don't HAVE to give them a bunch more leases for this kind of stuff to happen.