Sunak is right to push ahead with new North Sea oil licenses

The green lobby has found another way of attacking the government for giving the go-ahead for new oil and gas licences in the North Sea. They are claiming that Britain doesn’t have enough refinery capacity to turn the crude oil into finished products. 

The climate pressure group Global Witness claims that most of the new oil which will come out of the North Sea will be ‘heavy’ – while Britain’s refineries are geared up to handle lighter crude oils. Therefore, the group contends, it is pointless drilling for new oil in the North Sea because it can’t help provide for our own needs in terms of finished products such as petrol, diesel etc.

It is a fallacious argument. Refinery capacity is, needless to say, responsive to demand. If we produce more oil in the North Sea, it generates an incentive for the refinery industry to invest there. Even