Editorial: ​The UK must drill, frack and expand its nuclear power

​An extraordinary new report out today casts serious doubt on Sir Keir Starmer’s approach to energy in the UK

Industry chiefs have said that he North Sea could produce about half of the oil and gas the UK will need in the run up to 2050 – but only if new projects can be developed.

But Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) says that, as it stands, the UK is on track to produce just four billion of the 13 to 15 billion barrels of oil and gas the country will need over the next 25 years.

OEUK argues that by “unlocking additional resources from waters around the coast” this could be increased to about seven billion barrels – a move which the industry body said could be worth £150 billion to the UK economy.

This could only happen if the UK government consents to new projects, but since the Labour Party came to power in July the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has maintained it will not issue licences to explore new fields, as it pursues the target of the UK achieving net zero by 2050.

This is madness and would be so even if Britain was not in a dire financial position, which it was even prior to the need to increase defence spending markedly.

The UK represents about 1% of global emissions. We can have essentially no impact in cutting carbon output globally unless the rest of the world takes the same brutal approach – which it won’t. Already our energy costs are among the highest in the western world.

As the OEUK says: “Energy security is national security. In an increasingly volatile world the widening gap between the energy we produce and what we import matters.”

The UK must drill into its huge natural resource, and develop much more nuclear power while – of course – continuing to expand renewable technology. We must frack as well.