Four in 10 North Sea oil and fuel licences owned by overseas companies and buyers

Two-fifths of North Sea licences to drill for fuel and oil are owned by overseas companies and buyers, a examine has revealed.

Analysts on the Common Wealth suppose tank discovered 41.3% of licences within the fossil gasoline fields had been managed from overseas. They known as for wells and platforms to be publicly-owned, that means income might be pumped into greener power.

Experts examined information from the North Sea Transition Authority discovered 314 licences in operation, consisting of 760 sub-areas. They stated 29.7% had been held by firms that are or have been backed by non-public fairness companies. Some 41.3% are held by companies situated abroad, together with 10.8% by enterprises backed by overseas governments similar to Abu Dhabi-based Taqa, with 3.9%; Norway’s Equinor with 3.4%; and South Korea’s Dana with 2.1%. British power giants Shell and BP personal 8.09% and 5.35% respectively.

Common Wealth director Mathew Lawrence stated: “The future of the North Sea is central to debates about Britain’s energy security. But that focus means we often ignore the present – who owns and profits from oil and gas extraction today. The answer is clear; the North Sea is dominated by three sets of companies – the multinational fossil fuel giants, private equity-backed firms, and overseas companies, many of which are state-owned. Looking forward, the lesson is clear – if we want the wealth of the renewables revolution to benefit the public, rather than leak offshore, we need to ensure the public retains ownership of the country’s shared natural wealth, unlike how it squandered its oil and gas resources.”

The suppose tank’s information analyst Sophie Flinders stated: “The North Sea, part of our natural heritage, should be publicly owned. Instead, over 10% is owned by overseas state-owned enterprises (and) almost 30% is owned by formerly private equity-backed companies. Publicly owned stakes in the North Sea would provide the best route for the clean energy transition, with change managed by the state instead of leaving coordination to different companies each with different agendas.”

Tessa Khan, government director of Uplift – which campaigns to cease using fossil fuels – stated the examine “makes clear what many have pointed out to this Government time and again – that North Sea oil and gas reserves don’t belong to the UK public but are owned by private companies, whether that’s multinationals, private equity or foreign government-backed firms”. She added: “As a result, there is almost no public benefit in issuing new licences and approving new fields, only private gain.”

Michael Tholen, sustainability and coverage director commerce physique Offshore Energies UK, stated that “regardless” of the place overseas companies had been based mostly, “they all need to satisfy certain UK corporate governance criteria including aspects like corporate structure and hierarchy of decision-making responsibility between the UK affiliate and head-office”.

“Regardless of where companies are headquartered, they bring lots of UK benefit. Their activities in the UK all bring jobs, taxes and energy to the UK, from our UK waters,” he stated. Mr Tholen ssid the forex system “works well”, including: “The wider interests of the UK state are protected by legislation and regulation and this approach has proved highly effective over five decades in the licensing of offshore oil and gas activity and similarly in offshore wind arrays. The oil and gas sector’s contribution to the public purse/Treasury adds up to around £400bn in production taxes in the last 50 years. The sector is a major contributor to the economy , generating almost £30bn in gross value added in 2022.”

Defending income going to personal firms and shareholders, he added: “The offshore oil and gas sector is the most heavily taxed sector of the economy. Companies investing in the UK’s energy future, from multinationals to UK-headquartered firms, are key to the British economy – providing decent jobs, paying taxes in the UK, producing the energy we need and scaling low carbon opportunities that will be key to achieving net-zero.”