{"id":31815,"date":"2026-05-08T18:13:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T18:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/31815\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T18:13:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T18:13:50","slug":"labours-north-sea-retreat-risks-making-britain-a-hostage-to-norway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/31815\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour\u2019s North Sea retreat risks making Britain a hostage to Norway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Vladimir Putin has long worked out that destroying those pipes could bring Britain to its knees within days, especially in winter.<\/p>\n<p>There are precedents. In 2022, unknown saboteurs destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines designed to bring Russian gas to Germany.<\/p>\n<p>The UK Ministry of Defence also confirmed last month that it had successfully thwarted a covert Russian submarine operation aimed at mapping the UK\u2019s subsea pipelines as a precursor to future sabotage.<\/p>\n<p>This is just one example of the vulnerability hanging over <a class=\"ck-custom-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/business\/2026\/05\/03\/miliband-covered-up-document-showing-net-zero-plan-will-inc\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Britain\u2019s energy supplies<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In Scotland, the destruction of UK energy jobs in favour of Norway has also become a key political issue.<\/p>\n<p>Russell Borthwick, the chief executive of the Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce, says: \u201cThe UK is effectively outsourcing production, jobs and tax revenues to countries like Norway.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is economically illogical that billions of pounds are leaving the UK economy every year to support jobs, public services and sovereign wealth in Norway, all while highly skilled workers in the North Sea face uncertainty at home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even the Norwegians back that argument.<\/p>\n<p>Political shift has \u2018significant consequences\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Kolbj\u00f8rn Andreassen, of Norwegian trade body Offshore Norge, claims that the UK\u2019s decision to suppress its own North Sea was proving disastrous.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOil and gas account for nearly three quarters of the UK\u2019s total energy demand,\u201d he says. \u201cYet we are seeing an increasingly challenging and unpredictable tax regime in the UK, along with a political shift away from exploration and production. This has had significant consequences.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNorway\u2019s framework is stable, predictable and anchored in long-term policy continuity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ck-custom-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/business\/2026\/05\/02\/britain-braces-ed-miliband-radical-left-wing-chancellor\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mr Miliband\u2019s team<\/a> argues that it is wrong to compare the UK offshore industry to Norway, suggesting that the Norwegian basin contains richer reserves while the North Sea is in terminal decline.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIssuing new licences to explore new fields will not take a penny off bills, cannot make us energy secure and will only accelerate the worsening climate crisis,\u201d a spokesman said.<\/p>\n<p>However, Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, is adamant that relying so much on one country is both risky and expensive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are sending billions of pounds to Norway for gas we could be drilling ourselves, but won\u2019t because of Ed Miliband\u2019s hair shirt approach to climate policy,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is not in Britain\u2019s interest but the result would make the Vikings proud.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vladimir Putin has long worked out that destroying those pipes could bring Britain to its knees within days,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,633,254,3795,8354,3766,3544,1237,225,330,1797],"class_list":{"0":"post-31815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-ed-miliband","12":"tag-gas","13":"tag-north-sea","14":"tag-north-sea-oil","15":"tag-norway","16":"tag-oil","17":"tag-standard","18":"tag-top-story"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116540320179664586","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}