<div id="readability-page-1">  <p><time datetime="2026-05-14T05:00:00+01:00">    Thursday 14 May 2026 5:00 am  </time>      <span> | </span><span> Updated: </span>   <time datetime="2026-05-13T19:12:20+01:00">    Wednesday 13 May 2026 7:12 pm  </time></p>         <div>                                                                                                                 Add as a preferred        source on Google                        </div>    <figure>    <div>       </div> <img width="742" height="495" src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://www.cityam.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/An-oil-terminal-in-the-North-Sea.jpg/query-dz03NDI?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://www.cityam.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/An-oil-terminal-in-the-North-Sea.jpg/query-dz03NDI"/>  <figcaption>Calls for the UK to grant new North Sea drilling licences have been growing</figcaption> </figure> <p>The government will make it illegal to grant new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, the King said at the state opening of Parliament, in a sign ministers are refusing to buckle in the face of a barrage of criticism that the policy is depriving the UK of billions of pounds in tax receipts without helping the environment.</p><p>As part of an Energy Independence Bill announced in the King’s Speech, the government will bake into law its pre-election pledge not to explore new new oil and gas fields in a bid to “take control of our energy security”.</p><p>In its 2024 manifesto, the Labour party made a ban on all new exploration and drilling licences in the North Sea a key pillar of its promise to turn Britain into a “clean energy superpower” by 2030. </p><p>But since entering government, the party has come under growing pressure to renege on the promise, with critics arguing it strangles one of Scotland’s most vibrant industries and fails to improve the UK’s environmental footprint.</p>               <span>Play Video</span>             <h2 id="h-backlash-against-deluded-north-sea-policy">Backlash against ‘deluded’ North Sea policy</h2><p>Oil and gas still accounts for three quarters of the UK’s energy mix. And the majority of those fossil fuels are now shipped in from abroad, meaning other economies benefit from the job creation and tax receipts that derived from the lucrative drilling and refining processes.</p><p>Calls for the ministers to rethink the ban have grown louder since the outbreak of war in Iran led the price of crude oil to nearly double in a month. Last week, Norway, which drills for oil in the same area of the North Sea as Britain, approved plans to reopen three gasfields that had been shut for decades to help sate the global demand for fossil fuels caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz shipping lane.</p><p>Two of Labour’s main political opponents – Reform UK and the Conservatives – have both vowed to overturn the ban, in a move they say would help increase the UK’s tax take and inoculate it from any acute supply shocks.</p><p>The ban, which the government claims will help Britain off the “roller-coaster of fossil fuel markets”, has also drawn criticism from the US’s ambassador to the UK, who has used multiple interviews to urge Britain to make more of its reserves.</p><p>Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho accused her opposite number Ed Miliband of being “utterly deluded” for seeking to put the ban onto the statute book.</p><p>“He is not making us more independent. He is making us more reliant on foreign imports,” she said.</p> </div>

L100

HUKX

<p>英國政府在國會開幕式上的國王演講中宣佈禁止在北海進行新的石油和天然氣勘探。此項決定是《能源獨立法案》的一部分，旨在增強能源安全，並履行工黨承諾在 2030 年前過渡到清潔能源的承諾。批評者認為，這項禁令可能會損害經濟，並增加對外國化石燃料的依賴，尤其是在由於地緣政治緊張局勢導致油價上漲的情況下。反對黨誓言要推翻這一禁令，指出可能的税收利益和能源獨立</p>

國王的演講：部長們禁止北海石油和天然氣的勘探活動