UK Energy Minister: Drill Or Be Damned

The UK's Energy Minister, Malcolm Wicks, has fired a warning shot across the bow of leaseholders in the North Sea: drill 'em or lose 'em. Under a new plan, assets not actively being drilled will revert to the government, to be resold to others willing to do so.

Wicks will also warn that unless such drastic moves are taken the North Sea could be extinct as an oil-producing basin by 2035 - with billions of barrels of oil left under the seabed.

In the report, Wicks warns that it is "important that licences are in the hands of players with the appetite, expertise and capital to fully exploit all opportunities".