The Chancellor said she was looking at faster ways to “exploit” the basin’s oil and gas as quickly as possible, as Labour comes under pressure to stop energy bills from spiralling.
Reeves announced plans in November to allow so-called “tie-backs” – new fields adjacent to existing ones.
Speaking at the International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington, she said the Government was looking at speeding up those plans.
She added that “using existing infrastructure to exploit a larger geography” was “the quickest way to bring on stream more oil and gas”.
However, the plans could represent the softening of Labour’s key manifesto pledge not to issue new licences to explore new fields in the North Sea.
Reeves said she was “working through pretty intensely the technical details with the energy companies” to ensure extraction as quickly as possible.
This could risk increasing tensions with Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, who has so far held firm on banning any new drilling in the North Sea.
Reeves said this month that she would be “very happy” to see more oil and gas extraction in the UK.
However, the Chancellor also said she was working closely with Miliband to break the link between gas and electricity prices in an effort to reduce Britain’s exposure to volatile energy prices.
Both oil and gas prices have soared since the conflict in the Middle East began in February, threatening to unleash higher energy bills in the coming months.
“The moment when gas prices spike, we end up paying more for our electricity,” she said, adding that the Government would set out more details in the coming days. …
Yesterday, the Chancellor scrapped the Carbon Price Support levy, a £1 billion Net Zero tax on fossil fuels.
The tax, which was introduced in 2013, was designed to artificially inflate the price of generating electricity from gas and coal to encourage investment into wind and solar.
Such levies have been a key factor in making UK energy bills among the world’s highest, with the Carbon Price Support levy adding around £1.3 billion to bills.
Reeves’s decision to scrap the tax was buried in a Treasury report on a scheme to cut industrial energy costs. Officials admitted that the scheme, which would waive key green levies on the bills of 10,000 factories, would push up bills for other businesses and consumers....<<<Read More>>>...