UK energy policy is economic self-harm. Labour banning new North Sea drilling licences + fracking — right as the Strait of Hormuz crisis hits. Yet oil & gas extraction is one of our MOST productive industries. A thread (1/10)
UK per capita energy consumption has fallen 2.4% per year — faster than most G7 countries. Result? GDP per capita growth is a miserable 0.4% annually. Energy is the foundation of modern economies. Without abundant supply, we stagnate. (2/10)
Globally, GDP per capita grows ~2% with rising energy use. Asia boomed by embracing energy-intensive growth. Britain chose “energy austerity” instead — and now uses less energy per person than Poland or Malaysia. This is a self-inflicted wound. (3/10)
The “productivity puzzle”? It’s largely an ENERGY problem. ONS data shows oil & gas extraction has productivity at 637% of the UK economy average. It creates SIX TIMES more value per hour worked than the rest of the economy. Yet we’re deliberately shrinking it. (4/10)
High-energy, high-productivity sectors are contracting:
• Mining/quarrying (oil & gas) GVA down 7%
• Refining productivity 384% of average
• Chemicals & pharma ~300% of average
Low-productivity service sectors grow instead. No wonder productivity is stuck. (5/10)
The human cost is huge: ~1,000 jobs lost per month in the North Sea. Hours worked in mining/quarrying down 9%. Refining down 14%. Grangemouth refinery closure (400 jobs) means we now import fuel and petrochemicals — even as global shortages bite. (6/10)
For a government that claims to be “pro-growth”, banning domestic production of our most productive industry is madness. It kills high-value jobs, scares off investment, and makes us more dependent on volatile imports. (7/10)
Restarting exploration and development would:
☑️Create well-paid, high-productivity jobs
☑️Boost GDP growth
☑️Improve energy security
☑️Reverse the productivity crisis.
Energy abundance drives prosperity. Scarcity kills it. (8/10)
More domestic oil & gas is the way to solve our dual productivity and investment problems. In other words — Drill Baby Drill. (9/10)
If you enjoyed this thread please like and share. You can sign up for free to read the full article on the link below (10/10)
davidturver.substack.com/p/drill-baby-d…
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