Incoming British Prime Minister Andy Burnham Will Fast-Track New North Sea Oil Drilling Projects – Is Already Facing Pushback From His ‘Net-Zero’ Labour Party Members

 

Incoming British Prime Minister Andy Burnham Will Fast-Track New North Sea Oil Drilling Projects – Is Already Facing Pushback From His ‘Net-Zero’ Labour Party Members

“While details of the oil and gas plans are not clear, the incoming prime minister is expected to uphold the manifesto commitment. One source said Burnham might pitch this as a significant change of direction but said any overt support for completely new licenses is not on the cards.

Rosebank and Jackdaw both already have licenses to exclusively explore for oil and gas. The decision currently under consideration is whether to give approval to produce oil and gas there. If given the go ahead, that would not break the manifesto commitment on licenses.

The ongoing legal processes around Rosebank and Jackdaw mean Burnham will also not be able to explicitly announce their approval, but he will likely nod to it in his first speech as prime minister on Monday. This decision will instead effectively fall to the new, unannounced energy secretary.