The UK offshore energy industry has repeated its call for the Labor party to come together and listen to the sector following Keir Starmer’s speech to the GMB trade union congress in Brighton, industry body Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) said in a statement published on its website.
“We want to meet with him because we now need to match the sentiment of Labor with the substance of his plans,” OEUK chief executive David Whitehouse said in a statement from the organisation.
“Today the UK meets more than half of its oil and gas needs with oil and gas imported from around the world. Without new projects and investment, this will rise to 80 per cent in this decade,” he added.
“The 200,000 people who work in this industry have heard Labour’s proposals and have questions about how they would work in reality. They want to know if Labor will allow the continued decline of domestic oil and gas production and the increase of imported oil and gas to meet the country’s needs. They want to know if when they say there is no new oil, they mean there is no new British oil,” continued Whitehouse.
“These are the questions we are very keen to discuss with Labor, and at the heart of our request is how we can work together to maintain activity and jobs in the offshore energy industry,” said the chief executive of ‘OK.
In the statement, Whitehouse said the offshore energy sector is a modern and diverse industry spread across the UK, “which has embraced and been at the forefront of change for decades”.
“We don’t stay still,” he said.
“Our industry includes those that are expanding into renewables, while the expertise of our people is driving ever cleaner energy production. We are committed to a sustainable future,” he added.
“As we build this future, there is no simple choice between oil and gas on the one hand and renewables on the other. The reality is that to keep the lights on and grow our economy , we need both,” continued Whitehouse.
“By investing in homegrown production, we avoid more expensive, less secure and higher carbon footprint imports, while supporting the infrastructure we need to make energy cleaner and more affordable in the UK,” Whitehouse said.
Rigzone has contacted Starmer’s parliamentary office, constituency office and party office for comment on the OEUK statement. At the time of writing, Rigzone has not yet received a response from either office.
Change is coming
In his speech to the GMB conference, which was published on the Labor Party website, Starmer said “change is coming and yes, it can unsettle us”.
“But mark my words, good jobs – good union jobs – will be central to this change,” he added in the speech.
“As well as Britain’s new nuclear, battery and offshore wind factories, Labor will build strong supply chains that create jobs, skills and decent wages here in Britain. We will work with you and industry to take advantage of opportunities in hydrogen, carbon capture and storage,” he continued.
“Our Green Prosperity Plan, like President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, is our plan for growth, and because we’re Labor, it’s a plan for workers, their jobs and their prosperity.” , he said.
In the speech, Starmer said Labor would create a new company, GB Energy, noting that “through this vehicle, we will take advantage of the opportunities we have”.
“And because it is suitable for employment, because it is suitable for growth, because it is suitable for energy independence, then yes, it will be publicly owned”, he added.
“GB Energy will be good for Britain and good for business. It will have two aims: to lead the way in better jobs and lower bills,” he continued.
GMB general secretary Gary Smith told the union’s annual conference that the UK energy sector needs “plans, not bans”, GMB stressed in a statement published on its website.
“We want a Labor government and it is clear that under Keir Starmer, Labor is preparing for power,” Smith said in a union statement.
“Energy is key. The energy we will need in the future is not guaranteed. We still import too much from the rest of the world. We must fix and secure our energy supply if we are to meet the threats of the world’s authoritarian regimes and find a viable way to achieve net zero,” he added.
“But our future requires a mix of energy sources: new nuclear, renewables, hydrogen and oil and gas,” Smith continued.
Westminster voting intention
The UK House of Commons, which consists of a total of 650 seats, is currently led by the Conservative Party, which has 354 MPs and a working majority of 64, according to the UK Parliament website. Labor has 196 MPs and is the second largest party, the site shows.
The latest YouGov Westminster voting intention figures, published on May 31, have Labor on 43 per cent of the vote, the Conservatives on 25 per cent of the vote and the Lib Dems on 11 per cent hundred of the votes
YouGov Westminster voting intention figures released on April 26 showed Labor on 43 per cent of the vote, the Conservatives on 28 per cent of the vote and the Lib Dems on 10 per cent of the vote.
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