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"A presumption against new oil and gas was always a madcap position." The SNP doesn't remember a certain Mrs. Sturgeon?

Politicians, you gotta love 'em.

(continued)

The chief executive of Malaysian state oil company Petronas, Tengku Muhammad Taufik, told this week’s Energy Intelligence Forum that “more exploration” was needed, saying there was “a vacuum that needs to be filled”.

Vicki Hollub, chief executive of Occidental Petroleum, told the London conference that only a quarter of the world’s annual oil consumption was being replaced through new discoveries.

“It’s not just investment that’s the problem, it’s finding the bigger reservoirs,” she said, adding that ExxonMobil’s giant discovery in Guyana would only meet a small slice of global oil demand.

“When you have the best discovery that has been made in the past couple of decades producing only enough to cover one-third of the demand in one year, that’s a big issue.”

The head of Saudi Aramco has warned of a global oil shortage on the horizon, after a decade in which the energy industry turned its back on the search for new oil. Amin Nasser, chief executive of the world’s largest oil company by production, called for a return to spending on exploration and production as global demand for oil continued to grow, saying current investment was “extremely low”.

“We had a decade . . . where people didn’t explore. It’s going to have an impact,” Nasser told the Financial Times. “If it doesn’t happen, there will be a supply crunch.” He also warned the US shale boom that had flooded the world with oil for a decade and a half was unlikely to be repeated.

“Eighty to 90 per cent of growth came from shale,” he said. “If you look at the next 15 years, shale is most likely to plateau and decline. Where are you going to bring the additional barrels to meet the demand?”Oil majors have been cutting their spending on exploration and production since a price crash in 2014. They were also influenced by predictions of a rapid energy transition away from fossil fuels, and by investors calling for them to return more cash via dividends and buybacks. Investment into oil and gas exploration and production is set to fall 6 per cent to $420bn this year, according to the International Energy Agency, the first year-on-year decline since a coronavirus-related slump in 2020.

Rather than spending heavily on complex and difficult projects, the industry has instead focused on drilling lower-cost reservoirs in a bid to meet demand.

However, many analysts now believe that oil consumption will be more robust than previously predicted, due to a slower switch to clean energy. Consultancy Rystad estimated that, as a result, there could be a global oil shortfall of close to 10mn barrels a day by 2040.

Nasser, who is nearing 10 years at the helm of Aramco, said that as it typically took five to seven years to bring new projects online, the world’s future supply rested on the actions companies took now. “We monitor final investment decisions and you can see a big drop in decisions and projects that are coming into the market,” Nasser said, adding that Aramco was spending $1bn-$2bn annually on exploration. “For us, it’s strategic. We’re exploring and adding significant amounts of reserves.” For now, the market faces the opposite problem. Oil prices are forecast to fall below $60 a barrel next year, with analysts expecting a glut as Opec+ countries increase production as part of a battle for market share.

The industry has been cutting investment in anticipation of a prolonged downturn, potentially exacerbating the concerns raised by Nasser.

Nevertheless, his comments echo growing industry unease about reserves and long-term supply, with BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies all saying recently that they wanted to step up exploration and production.

On Labour’s flagship pledge of clean power by 2030 Ms Porter stressed that the target is unrealistic. “This is highly unlikely. It’s a little bit like saying, there’s an outside chance that pigs will fly and therefore you can say, ‘yes, it’s possible pigs will fly’, but it is functionally meaningless,” she said.

Podcast/Interview with Kathryn Porter starts @ 21.25

Article in DT with approx. the same content as the one in the Financial Times :

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/16/green-levies-are-to-blame-for-rising-energy-bills/

UK’s biggest gas and electricity providers urge ministers to address ballooning net zero costs

Household energy bills are on course to rise by hundreds of pounds this decade because of ballooning green levies, the country’s biggest gas and electricity suppliers have warned.

Senior executives from Octopus Energy, British Gas owner Centrica, E.On, EDF and Ovo urged ministers to urgently address levies that pay for net zero-related costs, which they said are one of the main factors driving bills higher.

Speaking to MPs on a Parliamentary committee on Wednesday, Rachel Fletcher, director for regulation at Octopus Energy, said current trends suggest green levies, along with the costs of running the system and building the power grid, could add around £300 to a typical household’s electricity bill by 2030.

This meant that even if the wholesale cost of electricity was halved, bills would still rise by around £150 overall.

The warning will be seen as a blow to Labour’s Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, who has promised to cut bills by £300 by the end of the decade and has put green energy at the heart of his plan to achieve the target.

Just hours before energy executives spoke to MPs, Mr Miliband claimed the high gas prices were to blame for the UK’s sky-high electricity prices.

But energy bosses warned that net zero levies were becoming so expensive that they threatened to push household bills higher, even if gas and power prices fell dramatically.

......

Maurice Cousins, campaign director for Net Zero Watch, said the “damning admissions” showed that net zero was “driving permanent structural inflation into energy bills”.

Mr Miliband’s department dismissed the warnings from energy companies as “speculation”.

A spokesman added: “Wholesale gas costs for households remain 75pc higher than they were before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and the main reason energy bills remain high.

“The only way to bring down energy bills for good is by making Britain a clean energy superpower, which will get the UK off the rollercoaster of fossil fuel prices and onto clean, homegrown power that we control.”

He keeps lying through his teeth.

‘The economics have changed’ – Miliband defends sprint to clean power

Approximately 400,000 additional jobs are expected to be created under the clean power plan.

https://www.energyvoice.com/renewables-energy-transition/582432/the-economics-has-changed-miliband-defends-sprint-to-clean-power/

Hi Romaron, unable to access via your link. Is this the article you posted? :

https://nypost.com/2025/10/09/opinion/us-must-halt-the-world-banks-foolish-climate-fantasies/

Saudi Aramco chief warns of global oil shortage if industry fails to invest

Amin Nasser predicts ‘supply crunch’ unless energy companies return to exploration and find new reserves

https://www.ft.com/content/698b826a-8d14-4eef-bca6-f84634965080

UK energy bosses sound warning over rising household bills

Octopus Energy, EDF and E.On executives challenge Labour’s pledge to reduce energy costs

https://www.ft.com/content/c9655f38-1cbc-473e-9612-822041b3643c

The UK’s leading energy retailers have warned of rising electricity prices, in a challenge to Labour’s pledge to bring household bills down by hundreds of pounds by 2030.

Executives from Octopus Energy, the UK’s largest household energy supplier, as well as major suppliers EDF and E.On said the increasing cost of investment added on to bills risked outweighing any potential falls in wholesale prices.

“If we continue on the path we are on, in all likelihood electricity prices are going to be 20 per cent higher — even if wholesale prices halve,” Rachel Fletcher, director of regulation at Octopus Energy, told the parliamentary Energy Select Committee on Wednesday.

“Non-commodity costs are adding about £300 [a year] of pressure,” she added.

The comments come as Labour is under pressure over energy costs, with critics warning that the government’s decarbonisation targets for the electricity sector are unachievable and risk pushing up charges.

British households pay much more for electricity than for gas, both on the unit rate and the daily standing charge.

The retail electricity price includes the wholesale price of electricity, as well as extra charges to pay for government policies such as supporting vulnerable households, renewable electricity subsidies and upgrading electricity networks.

Network owners are making huge investments in expanding and upgrading grids, with demand predicted to increase as households are encouraged to buy electric cars and heat pumps.

The government is also offering generous price guarantees to new wind farms, while households and businesses will also be charged for developing the Sizewell C nuclear power plant through a levy.

However, Simone Rossi, chief executive of EDF UK’s energy business, told the committee that electricity demand had fallen 8 per cent since before the coronavirus pandemic, which has spread costs across a smaller base.

“Even if the wholesale price were to halve, bills will rise,” he said, adding that the cost of serving customers in Britain is roughly double that of France.

Chris Norbury, chief executive of E.ON UK, said some of the modelling suggested “we could get to a position by 2030 where if the wholesale price was zero, bills would still be the same as they are today”, due to “non-commodity costs” from increased spending on policy and the network.

While Britain abandoned North Sea oil over net zero, Norway cashed in and made billions

Labour’s manifesto pledge not to explore new oil and gas fields is costing the country dear

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10/13/north-sea-oil-britain-norway/

Https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10/11/powell-pressure-chinese-factory-threat-britain/

No 10 is under pressure to reveal whether Jonathan Powell has been involved in talks to allow a Chinese company to build a wind turbine factory branded a “serious” threat to UK national security.

The Tories have demanded that Sir Keir Starmer must declare any involvement by his national security adviser in internal Government discussions over whether to approve the £1.5bn investment by Ming Yang......

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has warned of 1 million job losses in the European chemicals industry

https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/economics/article/net-zero-is-a-hit-with-voters-but-job-cuts-may-dent-its-popularity-hhlqnxvl0

"Ratcliffe’s pleas on energy policy are likely to meet a similar stony reception. Net zero is a top priority for many politicians and many voters. Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary and a Labour éminence grise, was asked about Ratcliffe’s warnings on Times Radio on Thursday. He said a shift to renewable energy would help to protect Britain from price swings in international markets for oil and gas. If you listened carefully you would probably have heard a hoot of derisive laughter from Monaco in response. This is a looming political test for Labour. Reform have always been pro-fossil fuels and now the Conservatives have done a complete about-face and said they will scrap net-zero targets. That surely is a step too far for McFadden and co. But if Ratcliffe is right, their resolve will be tested by a corrosive flood of job losses."

“We fully support the Government’s mission to become a clean energy superpower, and I’m confident that once the plans are approved, we can make a valued contribution to this goal.”

https://www.energyvoice.com/renewables-energy-transition/wind/582309/ming-yang-commits-to-1-5-billion-scottish-manufacturing-base/

We are worth less than 200M for the market. Congratulations to the British Governments of Wet Conservatives and Labour! The masters of value destruction have struck.

Https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/09/hundreds-of-uk-jobs-risk-wind-energy-company-deep-cuts/

Troubled wind farm operator Ørsted has put hundreds of UK jobs at risk as part of a sweeping overhaul to cut costs.

The cutbacks could have serious implications for the UK’s own plans to expand offshore wind.

The UK has 3,000 offshore wind turbines with a collective capacity of about 16 gigawatts (GW), enough to power up to 14 million homes on a windy day.

Mr Miliband, the Energy Secretary, wants to triple this capacity by 2030, an expansion that means installing about 3,000 much larger turbines in just five years.

Britain’s domestic gas supplies are set to decline this winter as the country deepens its reliance on imports from around the world, according to the owner of its transmission network.

National Gas, which is owned by Macquarie, expects Britain to get 6 per cent less gas from UK offshore fields this winter compared with last, and 7 per cent more imported liquefied natural gas. It expects gas demand to be slightly lower, but storage supplies also to fall, meaning the net effect is overall tighter winter supply margins, akin to those seen in 2019-2021.

“Our margins for winter 2025/2026 are tighter than we have seen in the last four years,” the company said in its annual winter outlook, published on Thursday. “This is largely due to the well documented continued decline in supplies from the UK Continental Shelf.”

Gas makes up 35 per cent of the UK’s energy demand, but production from the North Sea basin has been steadily declining for years.

Production reached its lowest level since 1973 last year, according to official government statistics, and fell 10 per cent between 2023 and 2024.

The UK government is consulting on plans to stop issuing new exploration licences for new oil and gasfields, as part of its climate goals.

Norway, which sends gas to the UK through undersea pipelines, overtook Britain as the largest gas supplier in 2021.

It is expected to account for around 36 per cent of Britain’s gas supplies this winter, compared to 33 per cent from domestic production, and 24 per cent from the global LNG market. Supplies of LNG are the “key source to meet rising winter demand”, National Gas said, given the flexibility of a market in which ships can be redirected at sea if they get a higher bid.

https://www.ft.com/content/eb33c077-c0de-4631-ad05-9cd4fc4f637e

....Sir Jim said it was time for the Government to start listening to business or risk deindustrialisation in Britain.... “If these carbon taxes remain they will eventually shut down all the chemical plants in Europe, and the products will be replaced by either American or Chinese imports.” ...It came as economists warned Britain will lose most of its chemical industry by 2030 unless Mr Miliband lowers green levies on energy....

“If European chemical production is replaced by imports from China and the US, total carbon emissions will rise. Chinese and US chemical industries emit 2-3 times more carbon for the same volume of output than those in Europe.”.....

The closure of Ineos’s Grangemouth chemical plant would also likely deal a major blow to the UK’s energy security.

The chemical plant is also the terminus for the North Sea Forties Pipeline system which brings ashore the oil and gas from about 80 offshore fields, about 40pc of the UK’s entire output.

Grangemouth’s “cracker” facility strips out the gas, feeding it into the UK transmission network and then pumps the oil to UK users or into tankers, meaning the pipeline would become redundant if the factory were to close.....

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/09/miliband-refused-to-discuss-north-sea-with-me-says-ratcliff/

Https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/ed-miliband-north-sea-claire-coutinho-scotland-liverpool-b2841643.html

Ineos has announced that 60 jobs will be axed at its Acetyls factory in Hull, underpinned by “sky-high energy costs and anti-competitive trade practices,” according to group founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe.....

“If governments don’t act now on energy, carbon and trade, we will keep losing factories, skills and jobs. And once these plants shut, they never come back,” the statement added.....

A government spokesperson responded: “We know this is a tough time for our chemicals industry, which is paying the fossil fuel penalty, with wholesale gas costs remaining 75% above their levels before Russia invaded Ukraine.

Not a word about carbon taxes, environmental levies.....

https://www.energyvoice.com/oilandgas/581976/uk-sleepwalking-into-deindustrialisation-as-ineos-axes-60-hull-jobs/

Https://www.energyvoice.com/all-news/581895/tories-pledge-to-reverse-energy-profits-levy-and-mad-eds-licensing-bans/

https://www.energyvoice.com/renewables-energy-transition/581942/scrap-carbon-tax-and-wind-subsidies-to-lower-bills-says-coutinho/

This must put some more pressure on Labour, even when the Tories are considered to be a busted flush....