North Sea drilling ban: the UK writes it into law, with oil output at a quarter of 1999

The UK’s North Sea drilling ban is now a bill. The Energy Independence Bill, put before Parliament on Wednesday 4 November, ends new licences to explore new oil and gas fields, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero says. Existing fields keep producing. The ban lands on a basin that already produces less than a quarter of the oil it did at its peak, while the country imports more than two-fifths of the energy it uses.

What the North Sea drilling ban does

Labour promised in its 2024 manifesto to issue no licences for new fields. The bill puts that promise into law: it removes the North Sea Transition Authority’s power to grant licences for new oil and gas exploration, the BBC reports. The regulator said it “stands ready” to put the changes into practice, which include new objectives for the NSTA itself.

The ban has a side door. New Transitional Energy Certificates will allow more production in areas already explored, including through existing platforms and pipelines. The government says this “could unlock around 60 million barrels of oil and support hundreds of jobs”. The bill does not decide Rosebank, the UK’s largest known untapped field off Shetland, which was approved in 2022 and then challenged in the courts, the BBC says.

The North Sea is a small part of the bill. It also gives legal backing to plans to scrap the standing charge on household gas bills, which the government says will save about 60% of gas account holders an average of £45 a year, and sets up a £2bn Energy Wealth Fund and a North Sea Jobs Service for the transition.

How much oil the UK still produces

UK primary oil production was 31 million tonnes in 2025, up 2.4% on 2024, the government’s Digest of UK Energy Statistics shows. Output peaked at 137 million tonnes in 1999, so the basin now yields just under a quarter of that. The rise in 2025 came even as many fields stopped producing.

Gas is falling faster. UK gas production fell 3.4% in 2025 to a record low, and oil and gas output together was 75% below its 1999 peak and 34% below 2019, the digest’s energy chapter says.

So the 60 million barrels the certificates might add are a small amount set against the decline. The government gives no time frame for them.

What the UK imports instead

The UK met 43.3% of its energy use with net imports in 2025, down from 43.7% in 2024, by the same chapter. Net imports were 73.0 million tonnes of oil equivalent.

Oil shows the odd shape of the trade. The UK exports much of its own crude and imports other crude for its refineries. In 2025 it imported 44 million tonnes of primary oils and exported 27 million, for net imports of 16 million tonnes, down 18% after the Grangemouth and Lindsey refineries closed, DUKES says. Refineries took only 4.7 million tonnes of North Sea crude, 9.7% of what they used; most imported crude came from the US and Norway. With less refining at home, the UK was a net importer of 15.5 million tonnes of fuels, a fifth more than in 2024 and the most since it became a net importer in 2013.

Why the price of oil matters to the argument

The bill comes in a year of expensive oil. Brent crude was $107.03 a barrel on 3 November, EIA data show, down from $120.15 on 30 October. Fuel drove UK inflation to 3.5% in September, as we reported on 21 October, with petrol at 169.5p a litre.

The two sides read those prices in opposite ways. The Conservatives call the bill “dangerous” and say ministers are “totally oblivious to the economic and energy threats this country faces”, and the SNP says it was “designed to exploit Scotland’s energy”, the BBC reports. The government presents the bill as a cut to bills over time. “Events around the world can send costs soaring,” Prime Minister Andy Burnham said in the government’s announcement. The announcement gives no estimate of the ban’s effect on output, tax receipts or prices.

What to watch next

• The bill in Parliament: its second reading in the Commons, and the amendments the government says it will add for the gas standing charge and the publicly owned Great British Grid.
• Rosebank: the decision on the field is separate from the bill.
• The Bank of England, today: markets put a rate rise at 95.3%, Central Bank Watch calculates from the 4 November close. We set out the case for a rise on 2 November.