Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, have said that \u201cdrilling in the North Sea is the answer to the energy crisis\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve spoken to experts to find out more.<\/p>\n
How much does the UK rely on North Sea oil?<\/p>\n
The UK currently uses North Sea oil, but only from drilling operations that were already in place before the end of last year \u2013 and these will only continue for their natural lifespan.<\/p>\n
This is because on 26 November 2025 the UK government announced there will be no new oil and gas exploration licenses, becoming the largest economy to officially take this step.<\/p>\n
The UK currently has hundreds of active offshore and onshore oil and gas production sites. Dr Hafez Abdo, an associate professor of accounting at Nottingham University who examines the role of the oil and gas industry in supporting the transition to net zero, told us that domestic production meets approximately 40 per cent of the UK\u2019s oil demand, \u201cwith the remainder primarily imported from Norway\u201d.<\/p>\n
He also said that additional supply requirements are met through imports from other countries, including the United States, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n
Should new sites be used for more oil and gas production during the price surge?<\/p>\n
FactCheck asked two experts if drilling for more oil in the North Sea would help the current energy price crisis caused by the US-Iran war.<\/p>\n
The experts we spoke to told us that instead of opening up sites that have been closed, or drilling in new areas, it would be better to ramp up production in sites that are still active.<\/p>\n
But why?<\/p>\n
Dr Abdo told us that the UK should \u201cprioritise accelerating production\u201d from existing energy projects to \u201caddress potential short-term supply shortages\u201d, as new drilling projects are \u201cunlikely to provide immediate benefits\u201d as they \u201ctypically require significant time before production begins\u201d.<\/p>\n
Drilling new areas would also be \u201cethically problematic,\u201d he added, as it \u201ccontradicts\u201d the UK\u2019s net zero objectives and would therefore \u201cundermine efforts to mitigate climate change risks and may slow the implementation of renewable energy initiatives\u201d.
But Dr Abdo noted that drilling more in existing oil and gas sites during a price surge such as the one happening right now, would \u201cjust be a short-term solution\u201d.<\/p>\n
Would drilling active sites for more North Sea oil and gas bring energy prices down?<\/p>\n
Drilling could be a short-term solution for providing more gas and oil, but it depends on the initiatives that the government takes \u2013 and the incentives they provide.<\/p>\n
Dr Mark Ireland, a lecturer in energy geoscience at Newcastle University, told FactCheck that increased North Sea production \u201cwould be extremely unlikely to directly reduce energy prices\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, indirectly, the government revenues from the production \u201ccould be used to mitigate the volatility of the global market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For example, when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and both wholesale and retail energy prices rose, the government introduced a series of policies, including the windfall taxes on energy producers via the energy profits levy (EPL).<\/p>\n
Dr Ireland explained that while the revenue from EPL \u201cwas not directly ring fenced and went into general taxation\u201d, it can be seen \u201cas part of the government balancing the books when it comes to packages of support to insulate the UK from price spikes\u201d.<\/p>\n
Therefore, if companies were \u201cincentivised to bolster production in the North Sea\u201d, then using the revenue from taxation \u201ccould be used to support consumers,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
However, Dr Abdo noted that any potential contribution of these existing fields to start with depends on a number of factors.<\/p>\n
These include the \u201cproduction capacity of the sites, the incentives provided, and the political will of the UK government to pursue this option\u201d.<\/p>\n
Dr Abdo said managing the prices is \u201cchallenging\u201d because oil and gas prices are \u201clargely determined by international markets rather than local factors\u201d.<\/p>\n
He explained that extra drilling is \u201cunlikely to have a significant impact\u201d on prices due to the influence of these international markets, and the UK government currently being \u201cunwilling to reduce taxes or duties on energy consumption\u201d.<\/p>\n
Dr Abdo also noted that the government could potentially influence costs through measures such as \u201cmodest reductions in fuel duties at the pump,\u201d but said this is \u201cunclear whether such action would be politically feasible\u201d.<\/p>\n
What would a longer-term solution be?<\/p>\n
Both Dr Abdo and Dr Ireland told us they think the UK government making further investments in renewables is the best course to continue on, and one which would help with price surges due to unprecedented events, such as the US-Iran war, in the future.<\/p>\n
Ms Badenoch also mentioned renewables in an article she wrote<\/a> about North Sea drilling.<\/p>\nShe said that drilling for North Sea oil to help with the energy crisis \u201cdoesn\u2019t mean throwing all progress with renewables out the window\u201d, but means \u201cdrilling in the North Sea and expanding other sources of generation too\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the only way we can protect families from rising bills, keep the cost of energy down for business, and control inflation,\u201d the Conservative Party leader added.<\/p>\n
FactCheck verdict<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been suggested, including from leader of the Conservatives Kemi Badenoch, that the UK government should be drilling for more oil in the North Sea to help with the energy price crisis caused by the US-Iran war.<\/p>\n
FactCheck spoke to two experts in the field, Dr Hafez Abdo and Dr Mark Ireland, who both told us that although drilling in active sites in the North Sea would be a better short-term solution compared to drilling in new areas, this wouldn\u2019t be that directly effective in bringing prices down for the consumer.<\/p>\n
They said that the UK government should continue its investment in renewable energy in order to both meet their net zero targets and be better prepared against rising prices should another unprecedented event, such as the war, happen in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Energy prices have surged globally due to the US-Iran war, with prime minister Keir Starmer announcing measures in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-493506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}