Kemi Badenoch promises to unlock all our North Sea Oil with new mandate

Next week, in a speech in Aberdeen [Tuesday 2^nd September 2025], Kemi Badenoch will call for our North Sea Oil & Gas sectors to focus solely on maximum extraction, and pledge to free the sector from unnecessary red tape. 

Kemi Badenoch will say that the next Conservative government will change the mandates set on the North Sea Authority, simplifying it to just one simple instruction: “maximise the extraction of our oil and gas”. The existing North Sea Transition Authority will be renamed as the North Sea Authority.

This new mandate would replace all existing mandates that currently are holding back the sector and damaging our economic growth. The ONS have recently said that falling oil and gas production is leading to weaker economic growth in the UK.

This would include ridding the industry of its current Net Zero mandate, which requires it to take burdensome action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through electrification requirements, restrictions on venting and flaring, and forcing producers to focus on green developments such as carbon storage technologies.  

It would also free the sector from the strict Net Zero requirements that are attached to the issuing of new offshore oil and gas licenses, whilst we import the same oil and gas from overseas.

This new mandate would also end the requirement on operators to budget precious time and capital for emission reduction measures and environmental impact assessments – a key change after Labour demanded that all impact assessments done by producers and operators factored in downstream emissions from the eventual use of this oil and gas.

Under our plans, extraction would be the sole and only metric by which operators are judged. 

This policy comes following Kemi Badenoch's call for a new approach to Net Zero – outlining that the current approach will bankrupt this country and leave the British public paying the price through higher energy bills and also follows her call for the end of Energy Profits Levy – stating: “Labour must remove the energy profits levy. Labour must speed up the process of replacing it with a system that rewards success and incentivises investment.”

It also comes after Ed Miliband's ideology assault on the North Sea has put thousands of jobs at risk, and left the sector in limbo with OEUK warning that 1000 direct and indirect jobs in the sector are set to be lost every single month from now till 2030.

Kemi Badenoch MP, Leader of the Conservative Party, said: 

“We are in the absurd situation where our country is leaving vital resources untapped whilst neighbours like Norway extract them from the same seabed. With the ONS confirming that economic growth is down partly because of falling oil and gas extraction, we cannot afford not to be doing everything to get hydrocarbons out of the ground.

“Britain has already decarbonised more than every other major economy since 1990, causing us to face some of the highest energy prices in the developed world. This is not sustainable, and it cannot continue.

“That is why I am calling time on this unilateral act of economic disarmament and Labour's impossible ideology of Net Zero by 2050.  Russia's war in Ukraine has only underscored that our energy supplies are a matter of national security.

“So, a future Conservative government will scrap all mandates for the North Sea beyond maximising extraction. It is time that common sense, economic growth and our national interest came first, and only the Conservatives will deliver that. We are going to get all our oil and gas out of the North Sea.”

Notes to Editors 

The Conservatives have been honest that net zero by 2050 is impossible:

• The Conservatives have been clear that net zero by 2050 is impossible without bankrupting Britain and making families poorer. Under new leadership, the Conservatives have been clear that net zero by 2050 is impossible (BBC News, 17 March 2025, link).

Labour are decimating the oil and gas industry, losing thousands of jobs and billions in receipts:

• David Whitehouse, CEO of Offshore Energy UK, has warned that 1,000 jobs will be lost every month in the oil and gas industry between now and 2030. WHITEHOUSE: ‘Today, we are seeing skilled jobs being lost on a scale that would be unacceptable in any other sector. Almost 1000 direct and indirect jobs in the UK oil and gas sector are set to be lost every month between now and 2030. But with supportive government policies, it doesn't have to be this way' (OEUK, Press Release, 18 August 2025, link).

• Analysis by Offshore Energy UK has found that changes made to Energy Profits Levy by the government will result in a £12 billion loss in receipts for the Exchequer. Analysis by Offshore Energy UK found that changes made to the Energy Profits Levy by the government would result in £2 billion less investment, a £13 billion loss in economic value and a £12 billion reduction in receipts because of a long term decline in production because of under investment (OEUK, Press Release, 2 September 2024, link).

The oil and gas sector is burdened by net zero requirements:

• Petroleum Act 1998: Under of the Petroleum Act 1998, the holder of a petroleum licence must act in accordance with the strategy set out by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA, formerly the Oil and Gas Authority). Part 1A, Section 9C of the Act states:

• Energy Act 2016: Under the Energy Act 2016, the NSTA was provided with regulatory powers, including the ability to participate in meetings with operators, to have access to data, provide dispute resolution and introduce a range of sanctions such as enforcement notices and fines of up to £1 million (NSTA, Legislative Context, accessed 29 August 2025, link).

• OGA Strategy: Using the Petroleum Act 1998, the OGA published the OGA strategy. The OGA strategy:

• OGA Plan to reduce UKCS greenhouse gas emissions: The NSTA published the ‘OGA Plan to reduce UKCS greenhouse gas emissions' to ‘set out the steps necessary for emissions reductions pathways'. Under the plan:

• Electrification: The UKCS Energy Integration report outlined that electrification describes offshore electrification as ‘replacing thermal generation with power from shore or offshore renewables' (OGA, UKCS Energy Integration, August 2020, link).