Conservatives pledge to maximise North Sea oil and gas, drop net zero

Kemi Badenoch pledged on Tuesday that a Conservative government would seek to extract as much oil and gas as possible from the North Sea, announcing plans in Aberdeen to strip net zero requirements from the sector and to overhaul the regulator that issues licences. The party leader said the move would prioritise economic growth, energy security and maximising Britain’s hydrocarbon resources, and promised to “get all our oil and gas out of the North Sea” if the Conservatives win power.

Badenoch said the United Kingdom could not afford to leave “vital resources untapped” while neighbours such as Norway exploit the same seabed, and pointed to falling domestic production and high household energy costs as reasons to change course. She told supporters the North Sea Transition Authority would be rewired, with the word transition removed from its name and its current 12 page mandate replaced by a single instruction to maximise extraction. The plans would also remove obligations on oil and gas companies to work towards net zero and to develop costly technologies such as carbon capture and storage, she said.

Government figures and critics disputed the economic case for the shift. A...