Guzzling more gas is not the solution to the energy crisis

Britain cannot drill its way to cheaper household bills, experts tell Zoe Tidman

The UK is reportedly set to approve six more oil and gas fields in the North Sea this year (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Is more gas the answer to the UK’s energy crisis? The chief executive of BP would have us believe so.

“If anything the UK needs more gas not less gas right now and that’s going to require more investment,” Bernard Looney told MPs on Monday as he pushed back against the idea of a windfall tax on the oil giant’s astronomical profits.

His claim found support in parts of the media and government.

An editorial in The Sun later the same day applauded ministers for reports they were set to approve six new oil and gas fields, which the newspaper suggested would help rein in soaring energy bills. Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, meanwhile, is said to have urged Boris Johnson to renew the UK’s interest in controversial fracking to increase the country’s energy independence.

This enthusiasm for gas-guzzling comes with household bills in the UK set to rise hit unprecedented highs with the lifting of the energy price cap. Ofgem, the energy regulator, has blamed the record rise in global gas prices.

But even setting aside urgent environmental concerns over more fossil fuel drilling, questions remain over whether gas is the answer out of the UK’s energy crisis – or a way to protect the country from future tumult.

“UK onshore gas reserves are far too small to make an impact on global prices, but this is not the only reason the UK can’t frack its way to cheaper bills,” Jonathan Marshall, an economist at the Resolution Foundation think tank, says. Issues include geology, population density and extensive public opposition to a practice that can cause earthquakes.

Getting more gas from the North Sea does not appear a short-term solution to the current crisis either.

“If you could magic up gas somewhere, and meet all of the excess demand, you would solve it. But there isn’t a magic source of gas,”  Bob Ward from the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment tells The Independent.

“All of the producers are producing as much as they can and they have a prime incentive to do it because the price is high”.

More exploration and fossil fuel drilling – with one new oil and gas field approved last month and reports six more could follow – are likely to come too late to help with the current crisis driven by global shortages.

“How long is it going to take to develop new gas fields? It doesn’t happen overnight,” points out Michael Bradshaw from the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC).

North Sea resources, he says, are drying up anyway: “It’s a mature basin. It’s in decline.”

No single country or producer would suddenly be able to increase supply in a way that would tackle the global shortage, never mind in the North Sea.

Less gas has also been suggested as the way to avoid future energy crises.

But also, and crucially, experts say there should be no new fossil fuels projects – including gas – if the world wants to reach net zero emissions by 2050.