Overseas oil firms dominate in North Sea licence round

SOUTH Korean, Malaysian and Norwegian oil companies have been granted permission to drill for oil and gas in the North Sea in the latest round of exploration licences.

Seventy-four areas of the UK’S North Sea and Atlantic waters are to be opened up for new drilling, the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) said, with the bulk of new licences handed to foreign operators.

The NSTA issued 24 licences, each covering multiple blocks of seabed. Shell and BP each won a licence but most went to overseas firms including Equinor, the Norwegian state oil company, Malaysian-based Ping Petroleum and Dana Petroleum, a subsidiary of the Korea National Oil Corporation.

The biggest clutch, comprising four of the 17 licences, went to Neo Energy (Zex), which is controlled by Hitecvision, a Norwegian private equity investor.

Foreign ownership means any profits made will go to investors abroad. The main benefit to the UK will be the taxes collected on those profits, plus any jobs generated directly or in the supply chain. The regulator’s announcement follows Rishi Sunak’s pledge to boost exploration for oil and gas in UK waters to “support the nation’s energy security”.

Graham Stuart, the minister for energy security and net zero, said: “We will continue to need oil and gas over the coming decades, so it is common sense to make the most of our own resources – with domestically produced gas almost four times cleaner than importing liquefied natural gas from abroad.”

The latest government data show that the UK still relies on oil and gas for 75pc of its total energy, consuming 75bn cubic metres of gas and 60m tons of oil a year.

The UK has 32m vehicles reliant on petrol and diesel, 25m homes reliant on gas for heating – and takes 38pc of its electricity from gas-fired power stations.

A NSTA spokesman said: “These licences have the potential to make a significant contribution to the UK in energy production and economic benefits.”

A Labour Party spokesman said the new licences would be among the last ever issued should it win the coming general election.