President Donald Trump has renewed his criticism of the UK government’s plans to phase out North Sea oil and gas production, claiming Britain is sitting on more than 500 years’ worth of untapped supply.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump launched a broad attack on European energy policy, accusing British ministers of imposing environmental restrictions and taxes that have made it “impossible” for oil companies to drill new fields.
He also linked rising UK debt to the shift towards clean energy, repeating his long-held criticism of wind power and claiming that countries with more wind turbines tend to lose money.
Trump has previously challenged the UK’s refusal to issue new licences for future oil and gas exploration in the North Sea. In September, he told Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer that the basin was a “great asset” the country should continue to exploit.
However, his remarks in Davos went further, including sweeping claims about the scale of remaining reserves and the UK’s tax regime.
“The United Kingdom produces just one third of the total energy that it did in 1999,” Trump told an audience of global business leaders. “They’re sitting on top of the North Sea, one of the greatest reserves anywhere in the world. But they don’t use it.
“They like to say it’s depleted. It’s not depleted. It’s got 500 years. They haven’t even found the oil. The North Sea is incredible.
“They don’t let anybody drill. Environmentally, they don’t let them drill. They make it impossible for the oil companies to go. They take 92 per cent of the revenues, so the oil companies say, ‘we can’t do it’.”
UK government figures show that domestic energy production has indeed fallen sharply, from a peak of around 290 million tonnes of oil equivalent in 1999 to about 100 million tonnes in 2023. This broadly supports Trump’s claim that output is roughly a third of what it was at the turn of the century.
However, critics argue that the decline reflects the maturity of the North Sea basin, where remaining reserves are smaller, harder to access and more expensive to extract.
According to estimates from the North Sea Transition Authority, the UK has around 2.9 billion barrels of proven and probable oil and gas reserves left, with a further 10 billion barrels classed as potential resources in areas yet to be fully explored.
Since production began in the late 1960s, roughly 48 billion barrels of oil or gas equivalent have already been extracted. Analysts say this makes Trump’s claim of 500 years of remaining supply highly implausible.
“The UK has already produced around 94 per cent of the economically recoverable oil in the North Sea,” said Guy Prince of the Carbon Tracker think tank. “At current production rates, that equates to about seven years of output, not anything close to 500.”
Trump also claimed that the UK taxes 92 per cent of North Sea oil and gas revenues. In reality, the Energy Profits Levy sets the headline tax rate at 78 per cent of profits.
He further criticised wind energy, suggesting it was responsible for rising consumer energy costs across Europe.
“There are windmills all over Europe, and they are losers,” Trump said. “The more windmills a country has, the more money that country loses and the worse that country is doing.”
In response, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said the government would continue to pursue an energy strategy based on national self-interest.
“For the UK, this means getting off the fossil fuel rollercoaster, which leaves us exposed to volatile prices, and instead investing in clean, home-grown power that we control,” a spokesperson said.
