Boris Johnson has signalled an expansion in North Sea oil exploration as he backed away from an international ban on Russian oil exports .
The Prime Minister said international sanctions which would strangle the Putin invasion of Ukraine had to be taken “step by step” and said the west and the UK had to look for “substitute supplies”.
The Prime Minister said he would be “setting out a new UK energy supply strategy” in the coming days amid mounting calls for new oil and gas licensing in the North Sea.
As he did so former Scots Tory MP Michael Forsyth made a call for the reconsideration of fracking for shale gas in the UK.
The announcement of a new energy strategy will ring alarm bells with green campaigners who have fought for the UK government to stop licensing new North Sea projects like the giant Cambo oil field, west of Shetland.
Mindful of the many European countries dependent on Russian gas supplies, Johnson told a Downing Street press conference: “You can’t simply close down the use of of oil and gas overnight, even from from Russia. "
"We can go fast in the UK, other countries can go fast, but there there are different dependencies”
The Prime Minister suggested there would be some extra domestic UK oil and gas production but that the UK would not be abandoning green goals.
He warned: “There is a crunch on at the moment and we need to intensify our self-reliance as a transition from hydrocarbons. But what we also need to do is go for more nuclear and a much more use of renewable energy .”
He added: “That doesn’t mean abandoning our commitment to CO2 targets. You can do that but you’ve got to accept the reality.”
In the House of Lords, former Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth called for the re-introduction of fracking, the controversial process of injecting liquid at high pressure to extract oil or gas which was abandoned in the UK because of environmental concerns.
Lord Forsyth said: “We have a duty to put the maximum pressure on President Putin at this time when the situation in Ukraine is beyond grim."
He added: "Should we not therefore be developing our own resources in the North Sea, our own resources through fracking, our own resources through nuclear power in order to guarantee security of supply?”
Energy Minister Lord Callanan said that there should be continued investment in the North Sea and renewables but said fracking “does not offer the silver bullet” many thought it did.
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