We need a softer landing on North Sea drilling not a hard stop - GMB

Starmer should reconsider a ban on new oil and gas licences
UK Labour says it will block new licences for developing oil and gas in the North Sea if it wins the next general election. Image: PA.UK Labour says it will block new licences for developing oil and gas in the North Sea if it wins the next general election. Image: PA.
UK Labour says it will block new licences for developing oil and gas in the North Sea if it wins the next general election. Image: PA.

Clear blue skies might have welcomed Sir Keir Starmer to the seaside but, inside the Brighton Centre, clouds were scudding in from the North Sea.

The waves gently coming and going on the beach across the road might have been closer but it was the crashing seas around drilling platforms 700 miles away that reverberated in the hall as the Labour leader spoke to GMB Congress.

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Of course, he was speaking to one of Britain’s biggest trade unions, a stalwart but sometimes critical friend of his party, but still his insistence that secure, well-paid, skilled jobs will be at the heart of an economic transformation under a Labour government was welcome.

He was there to speak but, as he took questions from delegates, it was clear the Labour leader was also there to listen.

We hope so because, while there was a lot to like, his refusal to deny his government will ban new licences for oil and gas production in the North Sea, did little to reassure our delegates in the hall, our members in the offshore industry, or their families and communities trying to discern the reality of a green revolution from the swirling fog of rhetoric that surrounds it.

The suggested ban has been called naïve. It is certainly unnecessary and self-harming. A hard stop when a softer landing, a managed decline, is needed for all sorts of reasons, not least the security of Britain’s energy and the future of the 170,000 people working in the offshore sector.

Ending our reliance on fossil fuels while building a mix of new, cleaner energies will demand considered strategy.

The language of bans might signal Labour’s virtuous ambition, but it will not ease the road to Net Zero and it will not help keep our lights on along the way.

On any given day, up to 60% of UK s electricity is powered by gas. Banning new licences will not stop us needing it but only force us to import more of it.

Fixing and securing our energy network must be the priority and that raises questions of economics, security, and morality. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should have been a wake-up call if one was needed. We must be able to stand on the world stage and call out wrong-doing without concern about the impact on our energy supplies.

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Labour say existing fields will continue until 2050 or later but, as they run down, only new fields will secure our supplies while we bring wind, hydrogen and new nuclear into the mix.

If there are no new licences, there will be no new investment as capital that could, for example, help build carbon capture capacity goes elsewhere along with the workers with the needed skills and experience.

Yesterday, Sir Keir promised jobs and lots of them but that needs more than a promise. It needs a manufacturing strategy, a blueprint for a new industrial revolution. We are in a global jobs race but are

on the starting blocks while other countries are halfway around the track.

In the United States, for example, Joe Biden’s administration is working with the unions to drive towards a new energy mix while simultaneously transforming the economy, bringing home jobs and using fossil fuels to bolster the transition.

His is a government that believes in plans not bans and its plans are built on skilled, unionised jobs. Ten years ago, we were promised 28,000 Scottish jobs in offshore wind. Today, we have a tenth of that. Now, Labour is promising 50,000 Scots jobs in renewables while uncertainty corrodes confidence offshore.

After a decade of talk, this does not feel like a just transition and risks becoming an unjust abandonment of an industry and its workers.

Aberdeen’s transition from Europe’s oil and gas capital to its energy capital should, by now, be well underway; supply chains for offshore wind should be stretching along our coastline; and the reshaping of our national grid moving at pace. Instead, we talk while other countries do.

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As Sir Keir prepares to travel north for what is being billed as a landmark speech on energy later this month, he should take a breath and, if he is considering a ban on new oil and gas licences, reconsider.

In this revolution, we need pragmatism not fundamentalism. Business as normal is not an option but a successful journey to a new energy future will rest on smooth, strategic decisions not sharp turns and emergency stops.

Climate change is an imperative but there is still time for considered action. There is no need to hurtle into decisions that risk unintended consequences for our energy security; for workers; their communities; and for hopes that Scottish seats will help drive Labour into Government.

The skies outside were still clear as Sir Keir Starmer left Brighton but he needs to blow away the fog of uncertainty billowing in from the North Sea and he needs to do it soon.

Louise Gilmour is GMB Scotland Secretary

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