The UK government has launched consultations to place its communities, workers, businesses and supply chains – North Sea at the heart of the UK’s offshore energy future.
The consultation will provide the next generation of employment for North Sea workers, invest in communities, reduce carbon emissions, and support private investment in technologies that help the UK make energy safer.
The consultations set the next step in the government’s comprehensive goals, and make it a world-leading example of the offshore energy industry based on the UK’s world-class oil and gas heritage.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: “The North Sea will be the centre of the UK’s energy future, and for decades its workers, businesses and communities have supported the power of our country and our world.
“The discussions concern dialogue with North Sea communities, businesses, labor unions, workers, environmental groups and communities.
Ensuring long-term certainty for the oil and gas sector
In addition to maintaining existing oil and gas fields and continuing domestic production, the government hopes to boost the economy through the expansion of clean technology and protect the country’s energy security in the process.
To achieve this, the government needs to make the oil and gas industry and its workers take advantage of the clean energy future.
The government is working with industry, communities, trade unions and broader organisations to ensure a gradual transition in the North Sea and develop a plan to create tens of thousands more jobs in offshore energy by 2030.
Utilize natural assets in the North Sea
While diversifying the North Sea industry, it is key to protecting employment and investment in the long term while domestic production is managed for decades to come.
Today’s consultation will leverage existing infrastructure, natural assets and world-leading expertise in the North Sea to deploy new technologies such as hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, and renewable energy, creating skilled jobs, fulfilling UK climate obligations, and making the UK a clean energy superpower.
It is estimated that in 2030, the offshore renewable energy workforce, including offshore wind, CCUs and hydrogen, could increase from 70,000 to 138,000. Meanwhile, it is expected that by 2050, it will add a total value of approximately £5 billion a year to the UK economy.
The new proposals can also see changes in the role of the North Sea Transition Agency as a regulator of the UK’s oil and gas, offshore hydrogen and carbon storage industries. This includes ensuring the regulatory framework needed for authorities to support the government’s vision for the long-term future of the North Sea, allowing for an orderly and richer transition to clean energy.
Additional steps to accelerate clean energy
The government is already taking rapid steps to accelerate the clean energy industry. It provides the largest ever investment in offshore winds and up to £21.7 billion in funding over the next 25 years for carbon capture and storage and hydrogen projects.
This is alongside the launch of British Energy, headquartered in Aberdeen, and the creation of a national fund that will help unlock significant investments in clean power projects across the UK and create thousands of skilled jobs.
The government has also consulted on revised environmental guidance for offshore oil and gas projects, providing certainty to the industry and responding to enable developers to resume applying for consent for already licensed projects.
This follows a Supreme Court ruling last year that required regulators to consider the impact of burnt oil and gas, known as Scope 3 emissions, in an environmental impact assessment of the new project.
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