Letters: A reliable and clean answer
[Re: Crude Awakening: The necessity of oil and gas in the green transition, February 15]
Gas price hikes, petrol and diesel shortages and the impacts of a Russian invasion of Ukraine all demonstrate the UK’s need for reliable energy.
There needs to be a diverse energy mix – including renewable power, hydrogen production, oil and gas, and more. This will spread risk, add stability – and minimize dependence on imports, including from places like Russia.
The offshore industry is transforming to achieve this diversity. It is protecting supplies of oil and gas – still supplying 73 per cent of the UK’s total energy – and promoting offshore wind, while also investing in new technologies, like hydrogen production and CO2 capture and storage.
The future is uncertain, but we do know that, for now, neither low-carbon technologies or oil and gas can be relied on without the other.
Last year, as global gas prices surged, unexpectedly low wind levels also reduced windfarm output – meaning the UK had to fire up its last coal-fired power stations. This year petrol and diesel hit record prices.
This volatility will continue so the best way for the nation to protect itself is to maintain its North Sea oil and gas supplies, using them not just to minimise reliance on imports but as a bridge to a low-carbon future.
Our energy system should be both reliable and cleaner; let’s get the balance right.
Mike Tholen, Offshore Energies UK (OEUK)