Claire Coutinho also told MPs: “Our bill will improve our energy security.”
While the UK is heavily reliant on oil and gas imports, there’s no guarantee that extra domestic production would stay in the UK, especially when it comes to oil.
This is because it is extracted by private companies, who sell it on the open international market, rather than necessarily to the UK.
For this reason – and because some oil can’t be refined in the UK – around 80% of the oil produced, external in the North Sea is actually exported.
Most of UK North Sea gas is pumped directly into the UK network, but some is then exported to Europe, for example to be stored for winter, according to Dr Simon Cran-McGreehin, head of analysis at the ECIU, an independent energy and climate think tank.
Amanda Solloway, a minister in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, confirmed in December, external that there were no plans to force private companies to allocate oil and gas in the North Sea for domestic use.
