Trump: North Sea wind farms should be replaced by oil and gas extraction

Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated as the new president of the United States in less than two weeks, has said the United Kingdom is making a big mistake by building offshore wind farms. According to Trump, the country should get rid of wind turbines in the North Sea. Instead, he said, it should revive oil and natural gas production in the area, which has been declining for a long time. Current plans to build offshore wind farms in British waters are highly ambitious.

Recently elected US President Donald Trump, who will soon take office again, criticized the British government last week for its approach to using the North Sea. The government should open the sea to new oil and natural gas production, he said. The North Sea is one of the world's largest oil and gas basins, although production has been falling for a long time.

"The United Kingdom is making a very big mistake. Open up the North Sea. Get rid of the windmills!" Trump urged the British government on his social media platform Truth Social, according to Reuters.

Natural gas production in the United Kingdom peaked around the turn of the millennium, but has fallen significantly since then. In 2023, the country produced only around a third of the volume it produced two decades earlier. Oil production followed a similar trend.

The current UK government, however, does not share Trump's view. It plans to increase installed offshore wind capacity to 60 GW by the end of this decade, roughly four times the current level. By contrast, in October last year it announced that it would raise the tax on North Sea oil and gas producers from 35% to 38% and extend the measure by one year. Revenue from the additional tax is expected to fund the development of renewable energy.

"We must replace our dependence on volatile fossil fuel markets with clean, homegrown energy in Britain – this is the best way to protect energy bill payers and increase our energy independence," a government spokesperson said in response to Trump's call, according to Reuters.

Offshore energy development under uncertainty

The development of offshore wind farms has nevertheless started to slow in recent years. In mid-2023, Swedish company Vattenfall halted its Norfolk Boreas project, which was set to increase installed capacity in British waters by 1.4 GW. Other offshore wind farm projects have also been halted, primarily because of a sharp rise in construction costs.