The UK Government will reportedly introduce legislation to award licences for oil and gas projects in the North Sea annually.

The move aims to ensure energy security and requires projects to meet net zero targets.

While the government sees this as a guarantee of energy security, environmental groups such as Greenpeace view oil and gas exploration as regressive and have pledged to challenge the new licences in court.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero clarified that the policy would pertain to offshore production licences.

According to Offshore Energies UK, there are currently just under 300 active oil and gas fields in the North Sea, with over half of them anticipated to cease production by 2030.