UK Upstream Criticises Negativity of NGO Reporting

The UK upstream industry lobby group Oil & Gas UK (OGUK) has repeated calls to environmentalist campaign groups to engage with the sector. It accused them of trotting out misinformation in its reaction to a report published by Friends of the Earth Scotland, Greenpeace and Platform September 29 that, it said, "failed to note the progress that is being made to support workers to move between renewables, oil and gas, and nuclear."

The report, which can be read here, makes clear the authors' perspective in the foreword, where it informs its readers that oil and gas production offshore UK was enabled by subsidies. 

The report says that many of the companies involved were among the world's richest, while their contractors were exploited. Many of the majors have shrunk their UK operations but "what remains constant is corporations in the North Sea operating out of the public eye and being governed by the boom and bust cycles of the global fossil fuel industry," the report says.

OGUK itself has warned of tens of thousands of job cuts this year, while previous recessions have also forced large scale redundancies in a sector that is highly oil-price sensitive. So there will have been no shortage of contractors willing to talk about their prospects.

But OGUK, which publishes documents on how it is responding to the political and commercial demands of the energy transition, said its staff were not invited to contribute and that it intends to respond to it. CEO Deirdre Michie said the group "looked forward to contributing to this consultation and offer our support to help them reach the heart of energy communities from Aberdeen to Norwich and beyond."

“We’re already seeing some of the actions from the Roadmap come through with new training certificates being launched this week to support the requirements of a net zero economy," she said. Both sides of the divide could "be much more effective if we work together to embrace the net zero opportunity. A huge proportion of companies in our industry have been supporting projects across the full energy spectrum including in renewables for years.... What is needed is to accelerate the transition without becoming even more reliant on imports for the gas and oil we still need during this time," she said.