Comment by BVAA CEO Rob Bartlett

I have shamelessly stolen this wonderful phrase from a very good friend of the Association (and not, as you might anticipate, TfL).

It so accurately reflects something I’ve been banging on about for ages when it comes to Energy Transition - namely that awkwardly inconvenient situation where the good ship ideology gets stranded on the reef, because the high-tide of new technology hasn’t yet had the decency to arrive on time.

I have watched and listened, in some amazement, at the shenanigans with the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields.  The Government of the time – who make the laws – are now deemed to have acted unlawfully in greenlighting the projects for not considering Scope 3 ‘usage’, which frankly everyone involved knew was the objective.  However, according to our national broadcaster, this decision was actually influenced by a completely separate case, which has been retrospectively applied to the two developments.  It’s very hard to see that this is anything more than a technicality, albeit a contrived and frankly stupid one in a global energy crisis.

More annoying, it seems some people haven’t yet twigged that we have to accommodate that awkward gap between the phasing in of one type (H2, nuclear, etc.) and synchronize it with phasing out of another, i.e. fossils fuels.  It’s called ‘transition’ for a reason.  Without a transition, there’s a gap.

It’s only three and a half years ago that the UK ground to a shuddering halt because of a perceived ‘unavailability’ of fuel.  In reality there was plenty; to be precise, exactly what was normally needed.  The population merely panicked upon a rumour and stockpiled unnecessarily.  Imagine what would happen if there truly wasn’t enough to go around!  That would be the actual case if we haven’t managed transition properly. 

Before anyone considers giving me a hard time about this, I am myself green-leaning, indeed there’s literally a gentleman fitting an EV car charger to my house as I type.  When battery-life finally syncs with the travel needs of a busy association executive, rest assured I’ll be going full-electric.  Last week, I also started the process of getting quotes for solar power for the BVAA HQ.  I get the imperative.

However, it’s an undeniable fact that we are going to need oil and gas for decades to come, and yes, eventually, that proportion will diminish as greener alternatives come online.  But it has to be available in the first place.  Rosebank and Jackdaw represent but a proportion of what will be needed in the transition phase, a need fully recognized by the Committee for Climate Change.  We’re so far in financially, it’s madness not to continue.

With their unequaled knowledge and experience, BVAA members are some of the best-placed in the world to tackle the many challenges of these new greener alternatives, and ‘Yes’ we very much want to get on with it.  Right now however, actual new technology orders are a bit thin on the ground.  Worryingly so.

There’s also a man out west spouting ‘drill baby drill’ looking for a market for his plentiful oil and gas, and the costs (and let’s include the carbon footprint here) of shipping that into the UK, are going to be far more than drawing it up from under our feet from an already-prepared and approved-once-already developments, from which the UK Government will draw upon colossal tax revenue.

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