Responsibility

Following a recommendation from the Committee on Climate Change, the UK Government has committed to a legally binding target to reduce the UK’s greenhouse gas emission to a ‘net zero’ position.  We are fully supportive of this ambitious target and our strategy to prioritise UKCS domestic gas exploration is a direct implementation of the Company’s ESG policy.

Natural gas has been identified by the Climate Change Committee as being key to the transition to a lower carbon future by initially displacing higher carbon, coal fired electricity generation and supporting renewable generation and then by being one of the key feedstocks for hydrogen production which will likely replace natural gas for use in certain scenarios including transport, domestic and industrial heating.

The Climate Change Committee expects natural gas demand to reduce by only 32% between 2017 and 2050 while at the same time UK domestic gas production could reduce by as much as 80% which inevitably increase the UK’s reliance on imported gas with LNG expected to play an increasing role going forward.

At Deltic we strongly believe in the prioritisation of domestic UK production over the importation of natural gas and especially imported LNG which is estimated to have a greenhouse emissions footprint of more than double that of locally produced gas, based on figures published by the NSTA. UKCS natural gas production is governed by some of the world’s most stringent health, safety and environmental legislation and also improves the UK’s security of supply and balance of trade while at the same time promoting highly skilled, UK taxable employment opportunities.

The UK’s gas basins have significant reserves and undiscovered resources which would go some way to displacing LNG imports. The exploration and development of Deltic’s strategic gas portfolio could result in the diversion of >600 LNG tankers from the UK and save >30.5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in the process.