Telegraph: The Government Says It Is Trying to Protect the North Sea - It Needs to Start Showing It
The Rhum gas field lies 250 miles off the north-east coast of Scotland and, until 2010, produced nearly 5pc of the UK’s gas output. But that year it was shut down because of American and European Union sanctions against Iran.
Why did a diplomatic rift between the UK and the Islamic republic hit North Sea gas production? Because the site is jointly owned by BP and the National Iranian Oil Company.
When relations between Iran and the West started to defrost in 2013, a waiver was agreed for the field. But, because of production issues, it took another year for the gas to start flowing again. By that stage one of the UK’s most important energy sources had lain idle for nearly four years.
Was the Rhum gas field central to the thinking of those civil servants at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) who advised Ed Davey, the Energy Secretary, to block Mr Mikhail Fridman’s bid to buy other gas fields in the North Sea? And, if so, is it a fair comparison?
Read the full article HERE.