The UK government is set to ban new exploration for gas and oil in the North Sea.
The Energy Independence Bill will remove the North Sea Transition Authority’s power to grant new oil and gas licenses as well as introducing Transitional Energy Certificates (TECs) to manage existing offshore fields.
The proposal fulfils Labour’s 2024 manifesto commitment to end new licensing and would require a parliamentary majority.
This would not affect existing production decisions on gas and oil production nor the pending decision on Rosebank, the nation’s largest undeveloped oilfield.
TECs would allow additional production near already licensed fields, or within existing field boundaries.
The government says the restrictions will help meet its 1.5 °C climate goal, strengthen the UK’s geopolitical position and sustain long term jobs in the energy sector.
It argues that the North Sea is a “mature basin”, where production has naturally declined over 25 years.
Further licensing, it says, would not reverse that decline or change the UK’s status as a net importer of oil and gas.
However, the proposed restrictions on future exploration come amid continued government support for domestic gas extraction.
Just two weeks before the proposal, the UK government approved gas extraction at Jackdaw, a North Sea gasfield owned and operated by Adura.
The government said the decision would “protect hundreds of jobs and help keep millions of homes warm this winter.”
Yet the developer estimated the project would create 27 direct jobs and protect 273 existing jobs that would otherwise be lost.
Councillor Alexi Dimond cited this limited number of new jobs in his criticism, calling the approval as not being ‘climate leadership’ and instead ‘climate vandalism.’
Sheffield’s Lord Deputy Mayor, Peter Gilbert, questioned the government’s environmental commitments.
“I don’t trust this government when it comes to any of their environmental commitments,” he said.
He said the Jackdaw decision showed Labour would prioritise short-term profit over “the future of our children.”
Gilbert also linked the issue to Sheffield, citing the summer’s extreme heatwave.
“Although it happens in the North Sea, it affects everybody in Sheffield, because we’re all part of this one plant,” he said.
It’s the Burn ‘um mentality. Burn ‘um all! People are struggling to make ends meet. In austerity Britain voters don’t have time to react to future threats. @andyburnham: Climate Criminal and War Criminal and only in office a few weeks. What a record! https://t.co/W2uCRtGy8Y
— Cllr Peter Gilbert (@PeterGilbertUK) October 20, 2026
The government may be closing the door on new exploration, but it has yet to close the door on fossil fuels.