Geology could crush hopes of extracting all North Sea's oil and gas

The remaining fields tend to be smaller, more remote and more technically challenging to drill intoNorth Sea oil is becoming a hot topic. During his recent state visit, US president Donald Trump urged UK prime minister Keir Starmer to "drill, baby, drill". Meanwhile, Conservative party leader, Kemi Badenoch, has promised to "maximise extraction" and Reform UK has said drilling for more North Sea oil and gas would be a "day one" priority. The appeal of reducing dependency on foreign energy imports is strong, but relying on the North Sea fields filling the energy gap has one big problem: there is not enough oil and gas down there.Oil and gas production in the North Sea peaked in 1999 and has since more than halved. The easy discoveries have gone and the remaining fields tend to be smaller, more remote and more technically challenging to extract. Writing in the Conversation, the energy expert Dr Mark Ireland, from Newcastle University, said: "Even if a future government relaxes exploration licensing rules, geology will remain the bigger constraint." Continue reading...