MANCHESTER — Some members of the UK Labour Party are advocating for new North Sea oil and gas drilling licenses to be issued in 2026, signaling a potential shift in the party’s energy policy. Former Health Secretary Wes Streeting has emerged as a leading voice in favor of granting new extraction permits off Scotland’s North Sea coast.
Streeting told The Sunday Times that he supports new drilling licenses and believes a government led by Keir Starmer will soon adopt a similar position. “We’ve also got to listen to what [the union] is saying. Listen to what the workforce is saying. And listen to what the public are saying.”
The United Kingdom currently faces some of the highest energy prices in Europe. British government data estimates that remaining oil and gas reserves in the North Sea amount to no more than 20% of their original total. Environmental groups offer a more conservative assessment: the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit estimates those reserves at about half the government’s figure.
According to the North Sea Transition Authority, the average time between the discovery of new fuel deposits and the start of production is five years. That timeline raises questions about the near-term impact of any new licenses approved in 2026.
Public opinion on the issue remains divided. A YouGov poll conducted in April found that 38% of respondents in England and Wales supported the government’s existing ban on new drilling, while 39% opposed it. A separate YouGov poll of British adults that month showed 62% favored prioritizing a transition to renewable energy over maximizing the UK’s oil and gas reserves, compared to 26% who preferred the latter approach.
Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change, cautioned that new North Sea projects may not be economically sustainable. “They’re only really economically viable when [the] market price is high, and therefore when consumer prices are high. In fact, if the price of oil and gas goes down, I’m not convinced that there’ll be a huge amount of further development in the North Sea, because it’s just not seen as economically viable.”