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By Ron Busso
LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump criticized the British government’s energy policy on Friday for calling for the country to “expand” aging North Sea oil and gas fields and ditch wind farms.
The North Sea is one of the world’s oldest offshore oil and gas fields, with production steadily declining since the turn of the millennium. At the same time, it has become one of the world’s largest coastal wind regions.
“The UK is making a huge mistake, open the North Sea, get rid of the windmills!” Trump posted on the social media Truth Social.
Climate skeptic Trump has long opposed wind farms. In the year In 2015, he successfully fought plans to build near his luxury golf course in Scotland.
His post on Friday echoes a report from last November about Apache, a unit of US oil and gas producer APA Corp, planning to withdraw from the North Sea by 2029. The company expects North Sea production to decline by 20% annually. In the year 2025
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor government won last year’s election on a promise to build Britain’s low-carbon economy. To reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality, the government aims to quadruple offshore wind capacity to 60 gigawatts by 2030.
In October, the UK government said it would raise the windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas producers from 35% to 38% and extend the tax by a year. The government wants to use oil and gas revenues to fund renewable energy projects.
A higher tax rate on oil and gas companies could lead to reduced investments, he said. Some companies have sold assets while others have sought to consolidate and relocate their operations to other regions.
Britain’s offshore oil and gas regulator, the North Sea Transition Authority, declined to comment on Trump’s appointment. Britain’s Department of Energy Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy minister of the opposition Conservative Party, commented on Trump’s comments in a post on X: “No other major economy is shutting down domestic oil and gas production… it’s completely crazy.”
Less oil, slower wind
Oil companies are pulling out of the North Sea to focus on new fields. It has declined from a peak of 4.4 million barrels of oil per day (boeed) at the beginning of the millennium to 1.3 million boeed.
Britain and countries in mainland Europe have dominated major offshore wind development, but the sector’s growth has stalled as technical and supply chain problems and high interest rates erode costs.
Some developers have either reconsidered or been put off investing in offshore wind because of the cost of building wind farms that can be more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) offshore.
Orsted (CSE: ), the world’s largest offshore wind farm, adjusted its investment and capacity targets last year.
Britain has a goal of decarbonising its power sector by 2030, which means reducing its reliance on gas-fired power plants and rapidly increasing its renewable energy capacity.
