UK Government grants 27 North Sea oil and gas licenses – not to bring down the sky high household energy bills, but to spend on ugly, inefficient and expensive “green energy” doomed to obsolescence

Some more ramblings and musings, kicking around some numbers of the tens of billions of pounds being kicked around in the ether around North Sea oil and gas and the sheer scale of the transfer of wealth from the taxpayer and the hydrocarbon industry to the  false prophets amongst the purveyors of “net zero” policies.

UK household electricity and natural gas bills plus “standing charges” are up 50% over the last two years. There has not been a 50% increase in oil and natural gas commodity prices. These are straight subsidies direct to the “renewable” energy sector. The renewable energy sector now this it’s a great wheeze to advertise “same price as non-renewable energy” based on the massively taxed and inflated energy prices of non-renewable energy. See how that works?

Moving on to thoughts and musings about the oil industry and petrol (gas in US language) supply chain to the consumer, we can start here:

Government Announces Annual Renewal Mandate for North Sea Oil and Gas Licenses | The Epoch Times

“The UK Government has unveiled plans to mandate annual renewal for oil and gas licensing in the North Sea, emphasising the need for energy security and job protection within the £16 billion industry.”

I wonder where that £16 billion number comes from?

It probably doesn’t reflect the numbers from the news agencies promoting the 2022 message of the Cult.

UK North Sea decommissioning estimate drops nearer $49 billion target | Reuters

“LONDON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - The estimated cost to companies of decommissioning oil and gas infrastructure in the British North Sea has fallen to close to a target of nearly 40 billion pounds ($49 billion).”

“The North Sea Transition Authority, the sector regulator, said in a report on Thursday it estimates a total bill of around 44.5 billion pounds. This compares with an estimate of around 60 billion pounds in 2017 and the sector's target of reducing the cost to 39 billion pounds, which was pencilled in for end-2022.”

Lots of international, and domestic politics and bureaucracy. All about the Cult of Moloch’s grip on the “environment” and its boot on  our necks to control the very air we breaths

Sunak tones down plans to deregulate North Sea oil and gas extraction after legal advice | The Straits Times

“Civil servants responded to the request by warning that a radical deregulation of environmental standards would be a definitive breach of international law, the people said. They also said Britain has legal obligations to dozens of international treaties with environmental requirements.”

Breach of international law?????? You mean the 2030, 2040 or 2050 UN Sustainable Development Goals that exist in some weird international treaty or another, that have never been voted on in the UK?

Shut the revenue stream down! It will only cost 40-45 billion pounds! Bargain!!!

Ok, so at least they are not “pulling a Biden” and shutting them down, right? But.. check out these weasel words from the government Minister making the announcement.

“Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Claire Coutinho, clarified the government's intention behind the proposed oil and gas licences. Legislation To 'Raise Money'

She said the move, “wouldn’t necessarily bring energy bills down, that’s not what we’re saying, but it would ... raise a significant amount of money that would help us... fund transition into different forms of energy, for example, things like offshore wind and solar energy which ... could help bring bills down.”

There’s an example of the cognitive dissonance of the “woke” dogma of the Cult of Moloch in its pursuit of creating debt and energy slaves across the globe. The very title “secretary of state for energy security and net zero” makes no sense. Net aero, is by definition the creation of energy INSECURITY of, at least, supply during the long winter nights. We all know windmills in the seas and on land destroy entire ecosystems.

Anyway “..wouldn’t necessarily bring energy bills down..” – yeah that would make people better off and more able to escape poverty right? Can’t have that. And the Opposition Labour Party promises to be even worse, even more “cognitively dissonant”.

Here’s some context.

North Sea oil prices (Brent) over the last ten years from here:

Brent crude oil - Price - Chart - Historical Data - News (tradingeconomics.com)

The price of a barrel of oil is a little expensive at around 80 bucks, but no t far off prices over the last ten years. It has been higher and lower but petrol prices at the pump do not vary as much as this.

Cost to extract a barrel of oil from the North sea?

Maybe 45 bucks which incudes the taxes imposed by the UK government.

How much petrol (gas in US language) from a barrel of oil?

Well, a barrel of oil is 42 US gallons or 159 litres.

What's in a Barrel of Oil? The 42-Gallon Breakdown - Petroleum Service Company

Around 70% of those 159 litres can be converted to petrol and diesel.

Infographic: What's Made from a Barrel of Oil? (visualcapitalist.com)

So, ignoring the other 30% that makes jet, heavy and light fuels and asphalt etc, a barrel of oil kicks out 70% of 159 litres = 111 litres of petrol/diesel.

A barrel costs 80 bucks, so a litre of petrol/diesel costs 72 cents = £0.59 or 59 pence/litre. (And around 33 pence per litre to extract.

How much does it cost on average at the pump?

Petrol prices and diesel prices in the UK | Latest fuel data from the RAC | RAC Drive

Around £1.50 a litre at a supermarket and £1.79 a litre at a motorway(freeway) station.

How much does the UK consume?

Volume of petrol and diesel consumed in the UK by month (racfoundation.org)

Around 30 billion litres of diesel plus 16 billion litres of petrol each year. Call it 50 billion litres for ease – we have some wiggle room because we excluded the 30% of other profitable extracts from a barrel of oil.

Tax as percentage of UK pump price (racfoundation.org)

Around 53 pence per litre times those 50 billion litres = 26.5 billion pounds.

UK Government revenue from North Sea oil?

Oil and gas revenues - Office for Budget Responsibility (obr.uk)

“In 2023-24 we forecast that oil and gas revenues will raise £10.4 billion”

How?

Taxation of North Sea oil and gas - House of Commons Library (parliament.uk)

“Companies operating in the North Sea pay three separate profit-related taxes on oil and gas production: ring fence corporation tax, supplementary charge, and petroleum revenue tax (PRT). Total receipts from these taxes are forecast to be £11.0 billion in 2022/23.”

Ok, so a bit less, maybe the new licenses will make up the shortfall of £600 million,

Total money taken from taxpayers close to 40 billion pounds. That is how much people in the UK are being drained of to bring in expensive, ugly and soon to be obsolescent “renewable” energy.

40 billion pounds a year.

Any idiot could create a rigged market for an energy source – hydrogen or a complete switch to natural gas of electricity or nuclear or tidal or even tectonic plate powered for that.

I still wonder why some Einstein has not created an internal combustion engine exhaust “capture and recycle” system - how hard can it be for the experts?

Onwards!

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