Supporting UK energy security

The UK Energy Bill is part of the government’s long term plan to back business, create jobs to provide lasting economic security for working people, and secure the recovery for the benefit of families across the UK. The Bill also supports the government’s work to power the economy with clean, secure, affordable energy supplies while keeping bills as low as possible for hardworking people and businesses.

The oil and gas industry is hailed as one of the UK’s great industrial success stories of the last 50 years and supports approximately 375 000 jobs, contributing £3 billion to the economy last year and is critical to energy security.

The UK government has said that it is committed to backing the Bill. It is taking forward the rapid implementation of the Wood Review and the Oil and Gas Fiscal Review, establishing the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) and taking action to help revitalise exploration.

With the Bill, the OGA will be strengthened with new regulatory powers so that it can drive greater collaboration and productivity in the industry, helping it to grow, attract investment, create jobs and remain competitive for the future. The new powers will enable the OGA to maximise the economic recovery of oil and gas reserves from UK waters by enabling it to participate in meetings with operators, facilitate commercial discussions to help secure critical North Sea infrastructure, have access to data and provide dispute resolution.

By reinvigorating the UK domestic oil and gas industry, the government believes that the country will also reduce its reliance on volatile foreign imports. The Energy Bill also seeks to close the Renewables Obligation (RO) to new onshore wind development in Great Britain and put more power in the hands of local people to decide on whether they want this now mature technology in their local communities.

Edited from press release by Claira Lloyd

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/refining/13072015/uk-energy-security/