Ewan Gibbs

It's always good to be quoted in the esteemed company of the leading economist, @lmacfarlane.bsky.social, and the offshore trade union stalwart, Jake Molloy.

Has the Scottish Government changed its stance on oil and gas? With a decision on the Rosebank oil field imminent – and lobbying around the windfall tax at fever pitch – some are questioning whether the Scottish Government's current stance on oil and gas is in st...

The Scottish government has pivoted back towards a pro oil position to attack the Labour government and the energy profits levy tax. I spoke to @karingoodwin.bsky.social from @theferret.scot on the SNP's confusing commitments to 'just transition' and 'it's Scotland's oil'.

The Keep Grangemouth Working campaign @unitescotland.bsky.social warned us closing Scotland’s last oil refinery without a plan that avoided left us even more dangerously exposed to the whims of energy markets and multinationals headquartered in other countries. Politicians failed to listen.

I'd like to disagree with you but I'm afraid all my evidence and experience only tends towards the same conclusion. What I might add is even where there is recognition and comprehension it's far too often accompanied by fatalism and acceptance which I tend to think of as learned helplessness.

Glad to see research @riyokoshibe.bsky.social and I submitted to the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee on worker experiences of job loss and closure at Grangemouth oil refinery was cited in a new parliamentary report which underlines the need to provide workers with economic security.

China is ordering its refineries to halt exports. Flows of crude exports from the Gulf to Chinese refineries, which are in turn generate refined products exports, are an essential part of the world economy.

Adam Hanieh's history of global oil, Crude Capitalism, has a good chapter on this.

I assumed it was free when I got the licensing options...

Do publishers really expect anyone to pay more than £3,000 to publish a book review in a journal open access? What a racket.

Who profits from an energy crisis in the wake of the war on Iran?

The 1%.

Thanks @nytimes.com @hclairebrown.bsky.social for covering our research.

Link to coverage: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/c...

Link to our article:www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A relaxed cat 🐈‍⬛

Warm ocean water, not air temperature, drove massive Antarctic ice retreat after the last ice age  - British Antarctic Survey A new study concludes that warm ocean water was the primary driver of major West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat since the end of the last ice age 18,000 years ago.

🌊 Warm ocean water, not air temperature, drove massive Antarctic ice retreat after the last ice age

www.bas.ac.uk/news/warm-oc...

Lloyds have been making the news!

Scottish nationalists who have shifted to the right on this are currently saying look to Denmark!

If this thread on North Sea oil was good enough to upset Aaron Banks it's good enough for you. Read it whilst you still can.

I think you’re also right to highlight that the North Sea is foundational to the larger story of British capitalism since the late twentieth century.

Absolutely. There was a political battle over direction of the North Sea, partly Labour vs Tory but partly within the 74-9 Labour government too. Benn and the left who favoured policies much closer to Norway were ultimately isolated and defeated, especially once Thatcher and Lawson were in charge.

This way leveraged private corporate knowledge and capability but retained control of supply chains, experience development of Norwegians, and sale of the product. This resulted in them having a sovereign wealth fund rivalling some Middle East countries. Political decision-making is consequential.

Are you suggesting this ends in a US east of Suez withdrawal?

Drilling for more oil will not make Britain secure The government says that new drilling licences are in the interests of self-sufficiency and national security. In reality they are anything but

I wrote this article for @prospectmagazine.co.uk in 2023 when Rishi Sunak tried to make the case for drilling in the North Sea as a response to international relations cries. It was a poor case for security then and it's a worse one now.

Drilling for more oil will not make Britain secure The government says that new drilling licences are in the interests of self-sufficiency and national security. In reality they are anything but

I wrote this article for @prospectmagazine.co.uk in 2023 when Rishi Sunak tried to make the case for drilling in the North Sea as a response to international relations cries. It was a poor case for security then and it's a worse one now.

The right-wingers who are today banging on about government causing the decline of the North Sea don't want to see decisive action through government intervention, owning and planning which would be necessary to deliver cheaper and more secure energy and prosperity.

British government should aim for a much more rapid electrification of our energy system, to control energy prices, for domestic users but especially industrial consumers and potentially to use North Sea capacity we do have to serve interests of industrial hydrocarbons users.

The key players in North Sea oil and gas production decline and job losses haven't been government ministers or regulators. It's private companies who closed down fields and refineries as majors like BP and Shell exited and passed them on to smaller firms.

We've now been through a quarter of century of declining production and workforce lay offs, which have accelerated since the oil price crash of 2014. Even price spike in 2022 didn't result in a demonstrable recovery in the sector though.

It's true that in the 1970s achieving some form of energy self-sufficiency was a major policy goal, pursued much more vigorously by the left/Labour than the right or the Tories. This came to fruition in a form c.1980s-2000s.

North Sea production peaked around the turn of the millennium and Britain began importing more oil and gas than it sold on the international markets in the mid-2000s. This had nothing to do with ambitions for net zero, it's connected to economics and geology.

The North Sea sector is entirely dictated around serving global markets. Almost all of our oil production, around 80%, is exported. We also now only have four refineries left in Britain so it's not clear how increasing domestic production will solve supply problems.

Following the price surge, the British right are pedalling a fantasy of self-sufficiency through North Sea oil. This has no serious basis in reality. Britain has been a net energy importer for 20 years. It has nothing to do with net zero and everything to do with decades of declining production🧵

Tuesday sun run 🏃‍♂️ 🌞

Brothers and sisters across the ocean