UK politicians accused of treating carbon reduction ‘like a religion’

Britain has become as unattractive for investment as Venezuela because of Labour’s net zero crackdown on the oil industry, a North Sea boss has warned. The Telegraph has the story.

Jim Johnson, the chief executive of engineering group Hunting, criticised ministers for adopting a religious zeal around cutting greenhouse gas emissions, which he said had left Britain “like the Venezuela of the North Sea”.

“The problem in the UK is that its politicians treat carbon reduction like a religion,” he said, accusing Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, in particular of having a “ridiculous approach to the energy transition”.

“In investment terms Britain is like the Venezuela of the North Sea. It’s uninvestable.”

Mr Johnson, an American, compared the UK’s offshore oil and gas sector to Venezuela – which contrary to much recent “hype”, he regards as an impossible place for new investment.

Despite boasting the largest reserves on Earth, Venezuela’s oil industry has become one of the world’s most dysfunctional.

After his seizure of Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president, Donald Trump has promised to spend billions to upgrade creaking infrastructure. However, oil majors like ExxonMobil have described Venezuela as “uninvestable” because of its deep-rooted problems.

Mr Johnson warned that carbon levies and the high energy prices from Labour are set to destroy what’s left of Britain’s heavy industries.

London-listed Hunting is poised to reduce its UK workforce to the bone because of the decline of the North Sea.

Four of the company’s five UK centres, including its main Scottish site, are to close over the next six months with the 160 staff reduced to well under 100.

Its 30-strong London head office team will be retained because “it’s too expensive to list in New York,” said Mr Johnson – whose own office is in Houston, Texas.

It means the bulk of the company’s activities and remaining 2,500-strong workforce will be concentrated abroad – two thirds of them in North America. Its pre-tax earnings for 2025 totaled $135m (£100m), up 7pc on the previous year.

Read the full story here.