Sunak’s vow to drill for oil and gas lights up explorers

A

lmost as soon as the government had committed to awarding hundreds of new oil and gas drilling licences in the North Sea, London’s investors rushed to get on board.

The prime minister confirmed plans for more than 100 licences off the coast of Scotland, as well as locations for a couple of new carbon capture and storage clusters, all with an eye to boosting the nation’s energy security.

Add to that expectations that Saudi Arabia will extend voluntary oil output cuts into September, which has lifted crude prices, and there seemed to be only one appropriate response.

Ithaca Energy has stakes in fields including Captain, above, in the North Sea