A senior Conservative voice has used one of the UK gas sector’s flagship events to argue that current energy policy risks accelerating deindustrialisation, with domestic gas framed not as a legacy fuel but as a strategic necessity.
Speaking at the National Gas Energy Forum on Thursday, shadow minister for energy security and net zero Lord Moynihan delivered a pointed critique of the UK’s energy strategy. In his keynote speech, Moynihan argued that the country is drifting into a self-inflicted crisis driven by high costs, weak security of supply and an overreliance on intermittent renewables.
“Before the Iran attacks, we were already the most expensive country in the developed world for energy costs – particularly industrial energy costs,” he said. “We’ve presided over deindustrialisation at a scale few of us could have imagined. We have no energy policy in respect of industry.”
“This is decimating our economies, our prospects for growth, our employment levels and our government revenues.”
His intervention reflects a broader shift in tone across the gas industry: from defensive positioning in the energy transition to a more assertive argument that gas must remain central to the UK’s economic and industrial future.
Speaking just over 100 days after returning to the energy brief in the House of Lords, Moynihan used the forum to draw a direct line between today’s policy choices and what he described as a repeat of past energy shocks – this time with structural consequences for the UK economy.
From affordability to security
Moynihan argued that the UK energy debate is undergoing a familiar post-crisis shift – from affordability to security of supply – echoing dynamics seen during the 1990 Gulf crisis.
But this time, he suggested, the UK is entering that phase in a far weaker position.
The country now faces some of the highest industrial energy prices in the developed world, with costs “five times higher than the US”, contributing to what he characterised as a rapid erosion of industrial capacity – from steel and fertilisers to refining and manufacturing.
That framing is critical: rather than treating energy policy as a climate or consumer issue, Moynihan positioned it as a core driver of economic competitiveness and national resilience.
“There is no economic case to close down the North Sea – not for jobs, not for security of supply, not for carbon footprint and not for cost,” he argued.
Gas as the uncomfortable constant
Central to his argument was a blunt assertion: the UK will remain structurally dependent on gas for decades.
Despite net-zero ambitions, Moynihan pointed to forecasts suggesting gas will still account for roughly a third of total energy demand in the foreseeable future.
The implication is clear – and politically charged. If gas remains essential to the UK economy, then limiting domestic production does not eliminate demand, it simply shifts it abroad.
Moynihan argued that UK policy is effectively outsourcing both emissions and energy security by increasing reliance on imported LNG, particularly from the US, which carries significantly higher carbon intensity than North Sea production.
In doing so, he challenged a core assumption underpinning current policy: that reducing domestic supply automatically aligns with climate objectives.
Storage and resilience gap
Perhaps the most immediate vulnerability highlighted was the UK’s limited gas storage capacity.
Moynihan warned that the country operates a “just-in-time” system, with only a handful of days of storage compared to months in countries like Germany and France.
That leaves the UK acutely exposed to global price volatility and geopolitical shocks – risks that have already been laid bare in recent years.
At a forum hosted by the national gas system operator, this point carried particular weight: infrastructure resilience is no longer a technical issue, but a strategic one.
Renewables – necessary but insufficient
Moynihan was careful not to reject the energy transition outright. Instead, he reframed it.
Renewables, he said, will form the backbone of future power systems – but cannot, on their own, deliver the “firm power” required by modern economies.
He highlighted intermittency as a structural constraint, noting that offshore wind in the North Sea operates roughly 40% of the time, while solar output is highly seasonal.
For energy-intensive industries and emerging sectors such as data centres, that intermittency creates a fundamental mismatch between supply and demand.
The risk, he argued, is that the UK builds a system optimised for decarbonisation targets rather than economic reality.
Call for policy reset
Moynihan’s proposed solution centres on a more explicit rebalancing of UK energy policy around domestic gas.
This includes:
- A new licensing round for North Sea exploration
- Long-term, fixed-price contracts for UK-produced gas
- Fiscal incentives to attract investment
- Mandated storage requirements to improve resilience
The underlying logic is pragmatic rather than ideological: if gas demand persists, the UK should meet as much of it domestically as possible.
He also drew comparisons with Norway, arguing that a stable and supportive fiscal regime has enabled continued resource development, economic growth, and energy security.
Industry mood hardens
The significance of Moynihan’s speech lies as much in its venue as its content.
The National Gas Energy Forum has become a focal point for industry leaders grappling with the role of gas in a net-zero system (at least aspirationally). But the sector is no longer content to be framed as transitional and is instead repositioning itself as foundational.
Moynihan’s message – that climate ambition must be reconciled with affordability and security or risk political and economic backlash – echoes sentiments gaining traction across parts of industry and policy circles.
