Offshore Energies UK welcomes new party leader, chance to renew energy security approach

Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) greeted the announcement of Liz Truss as the UK’s new Conservative Party leader as a fresh chance to renew the nation’s approach to energy security and accelerate the transition to cleaner energies with careful long-term investment in its home-grown oil and gas resources. 

The new Prime Minister will need to balance the short-term challenge of helping families pay their bills with the longer term challenge of keeping the lights on while tackling the climate emergency. 

There is enough oil and gas in the UK continental shelf to power the UK into the 2040s and fuel the transition to renewables. OEUK stands ready to work closely with the new prime ministerial team in number 10 Downing Street and with the Chancellor as they are announced in the coming hours and days. OEUK has written to the incoming PM to propose a new summit for ministers and energy producers to help plan the way ahead.

In her victory speech, Liz Truss made it clear that energy security and helping consumers is top of her priority list. OEUK welcomes her to this role at an extraordinary time for people and businesses across the UK and will work with her team from day one to deliver energy security for this country at the same time as the industry paying taxes to the treasury and supports around 200,000 jobs across the UK.

OEUK’s Acting CEO, Mike Tholen, says:

“We welcome Liz Truss to her new role and wish her all the very best in challenging times.  A big prime ministerial inbox awaits, on top of which sits UK energy security and its critical place in countering the threat from Putin’s weaponization of energy.  As the new PM has said, we need to find a two-pronged solution both in the short- and long-term to the energy crisis. 

“OEUK and our members remain steadfast partners for government and we work with political parties of all colors to ensure we carefully nurture and invest in our homegrown oil and gas industry and boost its enablement of our transition to a renewable future. We look forward to meeting with the new PM and her top team shortly and ensuring our members are front and center of the conversations and the solutions.”

OEUK is the leading trade body for the UK’s offshore energy industries. Its 400 member organizations employ 200,000 people,10,000 of them offshore, producing energy from oil, gas, and offshore wind. They produce, for example, about 40% of the UK’s gas supplies – a vital bulwark against the current global shortages. About 85% of UK homes rely on gas for heating. Gas is also essential to produce about 42% of UK power.

OEUK’s Economic Report: A Focus on UK Energy Security, to be published on Wednesday (September 7) examines the impacts of the global energy crisis on the UK and the nation’s prospects for boosting future energy independence.  It comes amid turmoil in the global energy markets, linked to Russia’s malicious manipulation of gas flows into Europe, which has driven up global prices. The UK’s reliance on imports means average domestic annual bills have risen from about £1,300 to £3,500 in less than 12 months.