R
ishi Sunak has backed future oil and gasoline improvement within the North Sea but in addition introduced two additional carbon seize and storage initiatives would go forward as a part of the drive for internet zero.
The Government has now dedicated to offering as much as £20 billion of funding for early deployment of carbon seize, utilisation and storage (CCUS), with the Acorn mission in Scotland’s north east now receiving assist, together with the Viking mission within the Humber.
They turn into the third and fourth such initiatives to be backed by the UK Government , with the announcement coming as Mr Sunak dedicated to future oil and gasoline licensing rounds for the North Sea.
The Government, along with the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) confused future licensing would proceed to be topic to a local weather compatibility check.
But environmental protesters, together with Greta Thunberg, are already insisting that permission shouldn’t be given to develop the Rosebank oil and gasoline area to the west of Shetland.
Mr Sunak nevertheless insisted that having new licensing rounds was “absolutely the right thing to do”.
The Prime Minister informed BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “Even when we reach net zero in 2050 a quarter of our energy needs will still come from oil and gas, and domestic has production has about a quarter of a third of the carbon footprint of imported gas.
“So not only is it better on our energy security not to rely on foreign dictators for that energy, not only is it good for jobs, particularly Scottish jobs, it is actually better for the environment because there is no point in importing stuff from half way around the world with two to three times the carbon footprint of the stuff we’ve got at home, that makes absolutely no sense.”
The Prime Minister, who’s visiting Aberdeenshire on Monday, insisted: “This is about is strengthening our energy security for the whole of the United Kingdom.
“We’ve seen over the last year the impact of (Vladimir) Putin’s war, we don’t want to be in hock to dictators like that when it comes to our energy and an important part of guarding against that is investing in our North Sea.
“And that’s what today’s announcement is about, making sure that we have future oil and gas licensing rounds.”
He added it was “important that we get energy from here at home”, stressing that the sector helps 200,000 jobs.
With the additional funding in CCUS together with the Acorn mission, he added: “That’s going to be great for Scottish jobs and help us transition to net zero.”
