A North Sea oil boss has taken a swing with Nigel Farage at City of London investors for a lack of support towards the sector amid the transition.
Steve Brown of Orcadian Energy (LON: ORCA) told the former UKIP leader on GB News that he’s “gone to people like Aviva and Legal and General and they say ‘we’re not doing oil and gas anymore’ and that’s actually not good enough”.
Mr Brown’s company is seeking investment to get the 80 million barrel Pilot project up and running, which would be integrated with renewables to minimuse emissions.
He has previously said it would cost around $900 million to do so, though that could be dramatically reduced through government investment incentives.
Nigel Farage asked him whether he UK is telling companies – via issues around the Cambo development – “don’t come here, come somewhere else” despite the oil price hike.
He said a lack of investment has hurt the sector.
“In the last year or two, especially in the run up to COP26, there was a sense that people didn’t want more investment in oil and gas.
“I think the government has actually been encouraging financial institutions to adopt climate change objectives and to not invest in oil and gas.
“We have a project in the North Sea, we have an 80 million barrel discovery, we’ve got the plans ready to develop it.
“What we need now is investment to move that project forward and the City is not stepping up to the plate.”
Mr Farage asked Mr Browne why he would invest in a “Scottish project” which “in a couple of years Scotland might have left the United Kingdom with an SNP government that is now anti the oil industry”.
Mr Brown said they’re very pro-renewables, and that’s not a bad thing.
“They want to see a transition, it has to be a secure transition.”
He added: “The message is changing and I see a shift in attitudes, but frankly it’s not happening fast enough. We need to see investment coming in from pension funds, institutions.
“We’ve gone to people like Aviva and Legal and General and they say ‘we’re not doing oil and gas anymore’ and that’s actually not good enough.”
Orcadian, which made its IPO in London last year, intends to develop Pilot using a polymer flooding technique to boost recoverable barrels.
In June, the firm submitted a draft plan to the NSTA (it needs to be fully funded to proceed in earnest).
Under the plan, 34 wells to be drilled via a jack-up rig through a pair of well head platforms, with power from a floating wind turbine.
Orcadian said emissions from Pilot are expected to be an eighth of the 2020 North Sea average, and less than half of the lowest emitting oil facility in the UK.
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