If there was a way to open new fields and guarantee the gas only fed the domestic supply and was tapered off as we decarbonise our grid I could support such a move. However I suspect the only way would be the government controlling the gas and contracting out the servicing of that to the existing oil and gas companies. Even then it would be awfully tempting for the government to slow down on the decarbonisation for cheap energy just before an election.
As it is there is no incentive for a license holder to do anything else but maximise the extraction and profits while it has the license.
Does anyone know how these licenses are normally structured?
If there was a way to open new fields and guarantee the gas only fed the domestic supply and was tapered off as we decarbonise our grid I could support such a move. However I suspect the only way would be the government controlling the gas and contracting out the servicing of that to the existing oil and gas companies. Even then it would be awfully tempting for the government to slow down on the decarbonisation for cheap energy just before an election.
As it is there is no incentive for a license holder to do anything else but maximise the extraction and profits while it has the license.
Does anyone know how these licenses are normally structured?
The project is only profitable for Equinor because the UK taxpayers would shoulder almost all of Rosebank’s development cost.
Privatise the profits, socialise the losses.