Committee hears from Energy Minister
25 March 2009 (updated on 22 April 2010)
The Energy and Climate Change Committee hold its third and last oral evidence session relating to its inquiry into UK offshore oil and gas at 9.45am in the Thatcher Room, in Portcullis House. The witness for this session is Mike O’Brien MP, Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change.
The issues being examined in this inquiry include:
- How can the UK’s remaining offshore oil and gas reserves be exploited most effectively?
- What barriers are there to exploiting such reserves? What steps need to be taken to unlock resources west of Shetland?
- What can be done to minimise the environmental impact of exploiting the reserves? How should this be encouraged and/or financed?
- How effective is the current fiscal and regulatory regime in which the industry operates?
- What effect is the recession and the credit crunch having on the industry?
- What is the impact on the financing of exploration and development?
- How are the skills needs of the sector being met? How transferable are those skills?
- What are the implications of an ageing existing infrastructure on the security of supplies from the North Sea?
- Is the right policy framework in place to manage the decommissioning of that infrastructure as resources are depleted?