Overview

• In a speech at the Offshore Europe conference in Aberdeen, Kemi Badenoch pledges to make oil and gas a cornerstone of the economy and to extract as much as possible from the UK Continental Shelf.
• She promises to end what she calls Labour’s ban on new licences, reverse restrictions on overseas support for fossil fuel projects, and rename the North Sea Transition Authority as the North Sea Authority with a mandate to maximise extraction.
• Ed Miliband condemns the approach as a failed policy that would raise costs for working people, asserting Labour’s focus on a clean energy push while keeping existing fields producing for their lifetimes.
• Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes says the choice is not binary, warns of job losses tied to the current fiscal regime, and criticises Westminster parties for risking the offshore sector’s future.
• Industry body Offshore Energies UK says the nation will need 10–15 billion barrels to 2050 but is on course for fewer than four billion without policy change, while the NSTA chief highlights emissions-cutting projects as a commercial opportunity already underway.