North Sea Oil Hopes Face Geological Reality Check
LONDON - Political calls to maximize North Sea oil and gas extraction are colliding with the fundamental limits of geology, experts warn. Despite renewed interest from political figures including US president Donald Trump, who recently urged the UK to “drill, baby, drill,” and UK Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who has pledged to “maximise extraction,” the potential for significantly increasing production is constrained by dwindling resources.
Oil and gas production in the North Sea peaked in 1999 and has as declined by more than half.Remaining fields are typically smaller, more remote, and present greater technical challenges than earlier discoveries.
“Even if a future government relaxes exploration licensing rules, geology will remain the bigger constraint,” explains Dr. Mark ireland, an energy expert at Newcastle University, in an article for The Conversation.
while granting new exploration licenses could yield a modest increase in production, competition from more accessible reserves in regions like the Middle East and North Africa poses a challenge. Furthermore, a lack of investment and diminishing oil reserves could render increased North Sea production a largely symbolic goal, according to Nils Pratley, financial editor at The Guardian, who has argued for a temporary and strategic boost to production to reduce reliance on imported gas while renewable energy capacity is expanded.
