The head of the UK\u2019s national green energy champion has joined other high-profile renewable energy leaders in making the case for more North Sea oil and gas production as the government braces for an energy cost crisis.<\/p>\n
The GB Energy boss, J\u00fcrgen Maier, used a social media post on LinkedIn<\/a> to reject the claim that more North Sea oil and gas could help to bring down energy costs, which have soared as the war in Iran has escalated.<\/p>\n But he argued that an increase in North Sea production could bring a string of economic benefits to the UK, including more jobs and higher tax revenues. Based on these economic benefits, he said he was \u201ca supporter\u201d of a well-managed energy transition including \u201call energy\u201d.<\/p>\n Maier later clarified in a separate post<\/a> that he was \u201cfully supportive\u201d of the government\u2019s ban on exploration licences for new oil and gasfields.<\/p>\n He said the government\u2019s plan to use existing fields and tiebacks \u2013 which allow new deposits of oil or gas to be extracted if they can be reached from existing infrastructure – for their lifetime was \u201cconsistent with an \u2018All Energy\u2019 approach to the transition\u201d that would \u201cgive the supply chain companies enough time to transition\u201d while renewables remained the \u201cend game\u201d.<\/p>\n The comments follow backing for more North Sea oil and gas production from other high-profile green energy leaders, including the Octopus Energy boss, Greg Jackson, and the new chief executive of RenewableUK, Tara Singh.<\/p>\n Singh used an editorial in the Daily Telegraph last week to argue that Britain should produce more energy \u201cof every kind\u201d<\/a>, saying it was time \u201cto take energy out of the culture wars\u201d.<\/p>\n Jackson, who joined the Cabinet Office board<\/a> last year, told the same newspaper that the UK \u201cneeds more sovereign energy\u201d, which would require \u201cpractical, pragmatic decisions\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIdeology, wishful thinking, nostalgia and culture wars don\u2019t provide actual solutions. We should use what\u2019s available from the North Sea,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cWhile the price is set globally, there\u2019s no point shipping gas from the other side of the world when we have it here.\u201d<\/p>\n Miliband has ruled out new licences for the ageing fossil fuel basin, but officials and ministers are still considering whether to approve the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields, which were granted licences under the previous government.<\/p>\n .<\/a><\/p>\n Senior figures in the North Sea industry expect the fields to be given the go-ahead within the coming weeks, and claim they could begin producing fossil fuels by the end of the year. This outcome would be likely to provoke an outcry from green groups that have campaigned against the fields for years.<\/p>\n One industry source suggested that the go-ahead may come after the local elections in May to avoid creating a dividing line between Labour and the Green party, which has become increasingly popular among leftwing voters<\/a>.<\/p>\n The government this week dismissed a warning<\/a> from the energy trade body Offshore Energies UK that failing to produce more homegrown North Sea oil and gas would leave the UK increasingly reliant on imports at a time of rising global instability.<\/p>\n The war in the Middle East, which has entered its fourth week, has triggered the biggest oil and gas supply shock<\/a> in the history of the market and caused UK gas prices to more than double in under a month.<\/p>\n