Chris

The UK is utterly f*** on energy, and its leaders are to blame. This vulnerability was a choice. 1/ Britain and Norway were dealt the same hand when they struck oil in the North Sea. The UK treated its reserves as a fleeting windfall to be consumed. Oslo leveraged them for long-term security and prosperity: a “sliding doors” moment for British sovereignty. 2/ Despite the basin’s maturity, Norway never stopped drilling, averaging forty-five exploration wells annually. In 2025, Norwegian production surged to its highest level since 2009 — the lucrative result of a record $24.68 billion investment that returned roughly $90 billion in exports. Today, the sector serves as the bedrock for 20% of Norway’s GDP and sustains 200,000 people. 3/ Norway runs 98 percent of its domestic grid on renewables, capitalizing on the geographic windfall of hydroelectric power. But Oslo paired this with a rational calculation on its sovereignty: decarbonize at home while extracting maximum value from its resources to endow its future. 3/ Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is now worth over $2.2 trillion — the biggest in the world. Propelled by heavy exposure to US tech and AI, it posted historic returns of 15% last year. Every Norwegian has roughly $385,000 invested in their name; every British citizen carries roughly $55,000 in national debt. 4/ The payoff for Oslo is as much geopolitical as it is financial. When the invasion of Ukraine shattered European gas supplies, Norway stepped into the breach. It now provides 30% of the Continent’s gas imports. Britain is a captive customer, sourcing 76% of its gas from Norway — up from 58% just two years ago. 5/ Britain still has its own reserves. The collapse of British exploration is a policy-driven crisis, not a geological one. By suffocating North Sea producers with a 78% effective tax rate via the Energy Profits Levy, Britain rendered long-term capital investment impossible.