UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he indicated to US President Donald Trump during a phone call that he would take a 'pragmatic' approach to North Sea oil and gas, and that his government could not ignore the resource when people are struggling. The comments, made in response to a question about his conversation with Trump on his first day in Downing Street, stopped short of the stronger characterisation Trump had offered publicly.
Trump had written in a social media post the day before Burnham became prime minister that 'The People of Aberdeen, in Scotland, are dancing in the streets because the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has stated that he will be opening up, all the way, the invaluable North Sea Oil!' [Source: BBC News]. Burnham's own account of the call differed: 'I indicated in the phone call that we had a week last Monday that I would take a pragmatic approach when it comes to the North Sea, and that is my intention as we go forward from here,' he said [Source: BBC News]. The UK's own summary of the call made no mention of any commitment to open up North Sea oil, a divergence noted by The Guardian [Source: The Guardian].
The UK government has made no formal policy announcements on the matter, though Trump has publicly praised what he perceives as a shift in the UK government's stance. Burnham could scrap the Energy Profits Levy — also known as the windfall tax — if he wished to encourage more drilling, a step that would affect companies operating under the North Sea's headline 78% rate of tax, a regime widely described in the industry as hostile and a driver of consolidation activity. Among the London-listed operators with material North Sea exposure are Harbour Energy (HBR.L), Serica Energy (SQZ.L), EnQuest (ENQ.L), Shell (SHEL.L), BP (BP.L), and Centrica (CNA.L).
Harbour Energy, which describes itself as the largest London-listed independent oil and gas company, averaged 155 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day from UK operations in 2025, up from 149 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2024, with the UK representing its second-largest producing region. BP has been operating in the North Sea for 60 years and holds interests including the Clair field, located 75 kilometres west of Shetland, which is the largest oilfield on the UK Continental Shelf with an estimated seven billion barrels of oil in place.
The political backdrop is complicated by Labour's 2024 general election manifesto, which pledged that the party would not issue any new licences for further North Sea extraction, while allowing existing licences to remain in force. Burnham's predecessor, Keir Starmer, clashed with Trump over his reluctance to approve more North Sea drilling amid energy security concerns. The Conservatives and Reform have urged the government to approve more drilling, arguing it would reduce energy prices, while Green Party leader Zack Polanski said allowing new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea will worsen climate breakdown.
Sources: Bloomberg, BBC News, The Guardian, Yahoo News, Harbour Energy, BP, Energy Voice, HuffPost UK