Ed Miliband examines more drilling in the North Sea despite the work promise | Energy industry

Ed Miliband plans to encourage drilling in the North Sea despite a manifest promise not to grant new licenses on new parts of the British sea bed.

The energy secretary examines the means by which the government can allow companies to seek and produce more oil and gas without breaking the pre -electoral work commitment not to issue new licenses on new areas.

The plans, which will be announced in the coming months as part of a wider strategy for the North Sea, are involved in the middle of the pressure on the climate activists to stop all the drilling, and on the other of Donald Trump to “Foret, Baby, Drill”.

A government spokesperson said: “The strategy will explain how the government intends to respect its manifesto commitments to guarantee any new license to explore new areas and maintain existing areas for their life.” They said the government would respond to its “entire” manifesto commitments.

Miliband has been working on the northern sea proposals for months while the government has been looking for ways to maximize the life of existing oil and gas fields without allowing completely new exploration.

The work promised in its manifesto not to grant new licenses on new areas, and the ministers now examine how they can implement this while obtaining an economic return from the large -scale industry that already exists. Oil and gas companies employ around 30,000 people from their base in the northwest of Scotland.

The officials would have examined a range of proposals in recent weeks, including one that would encourage companies to explore and unravel in some parts of the North Sea, other companies have previously abandoned.

The plans were initially offered in an article published in August by Professor John Underhill, an energy transition expert at Aberdeen University. Underhill called on the government to issue oil and tailor -made gas licenses to companies to explore and produce hydrocarbons in places that have been deemed unprofitable.

The plan would involve encouraging companies with infrastructure such as gas pipes to return to old fields in the hope of extracting more fuel. This could be married to a range of measures to make industry less at high carbon intensity, in particular the ban on the combustion of excess gas routine, known as “washing”.

Underhill has met with energy department officials in recent weeks to discuss his proposals, who, according to him, could be delivered without granting new licenses on previously unexplored fields.

Underhill told the Guardian: “The tailor -made license, linked to critical infrastructure, would accelerate the process of evaluating and developing existing discoveries and non -rigular prospects. A new authorization regime would extend the lifespan of critical infrastructure, allowed growth and protect jobs by allowing discoveries to assess in a case of cases and passing from the allocation of production. “

The plan is controversial among green activists. Tessa Khan, executive director of the Uplift climate group, said: “Although we were distracted by always decreasing the quantities of oil and gas, we miss the enormous opportunities to create good energy jobs specific to the United Kingdom, in the manufacture of domestic wind in particular, which will long last in the future.”

The managers also work on plans to allow companies to explore new parts of the seabed from sites they already operate, in a process called “shooting”.

The allies of the Energy Secretary said that no final decision had yet been made.

The petroleum industry claims that it could extract more than 7 billion additional oil and gas barrels if they are allowed to explore and produce in those close to those in which they already operate. However, environmental activists say that this would recover “negligible” quantities of additional fuel while distracting the transition to renewable energies.

Treasury officials believe that production incentives would be a way to promote short -term economic growth, while the Labor Party is undergoing the growing pressure of unions and rival politicians to protect industry.

Trump used a speech to the UN on Tuesday to castigate the Prime Minister on the push of the United Kingdom to reach Net Zero by 2050.

The American president said about the United Kingdom: “` `he has huge oil and, more importantly, they have huge oil that has not even been found.

In addition to defining future rules of oil production at the North Sea, Miliband is likely to face a decision at a time given the opportunity to approve two new controversial oil fields called Rosebank and Jackdaw.

Shell and Equinor, the oil companies developing the sites, must apply a request for environmental permission after a judge has canceled their previous requests. If they do, the decision to grant it or not will fall to Miliband.

The energy secretary could allow these sites to move forward without breaking the promise of the Labor Manifesto, since they already have licenses and that he only issued environmental authorization.