UK to hold next oil, gas licensing round in autumn

The UK plans to launch a new licensing round for North Sea oil and gas projects this autumn, around three years after the last one took place, under a new strategy unveiled by the government on April 6, aimed at shoring up the country's energy security.

The Oil and Gas Authority, which has since been rebranded to the North Sea Transition Authority, halted the issue of new licences in order to assess whether its licensing policy aligned with the UK's climate goals. By enabling more oil and gas projects, the government said on April 6 it was "recognising the importance of these fuels to the transition and to our energy security, and that producing gas in the UK has a lower carbon footprint than imported from abroad."

The decision to resume licensing comes amid the backdrop of soaring energy costs across Europe and the looming threat of a disruption in Russian gas supply. The UK and the EU have committed to phasing out Russian oil and gas imports anyway, in order to deprive the Kremlin of revenues to fund its war in Ukraine.

The UK government is also embracing nuclear energy as part of a new strategy, with plans to deploy as many as eight new reactors at existing nuclear power plant sites. In addition, it is accelerating the deployment of new wind, hydrogen and solar power generation, and is increasing support for heat pumps, which allow households to switch from gas boilers.