Columnists

Published 3rd Oct 2026, 06:00 BST

In June 2022, following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the average diesel price in the UK hit an all-time high of 199.09p. It fell back over the next few years to below £1.40 but then the US and Israel attacked Iran, causing another oil crisis, and it has now broken the £2 per litre mark for the first time.

This is, of course, not just a problem in Britain but all over the world and it prompted the G7 group of leading countries to agree to release “up to” 100 million barrels of strategic petroleum reserves within four months.

The move came after Donald Trump, whose Republican party is facing potential defeat in November’s mid-term elections partly due to the high cost of energy, threatened to ban exports of US diesel. The US president said he was “thinking about it very seriously”.

That would have driven diesel prices in the UK and elsewhere even higher, but the statement by the G7, which includes the US, said: “We reaffirm our commitment to refrain from export restrictions on energy and energy products between G7 countries and call on all producers to refrain from imposing bans that could exacerbate market tensions.”

There are important lessons to learn from this. The claim that because oil is a globally traded commodity, production in the North Sea does not affect the price is no longer necessarily correct.

In a free trade world, it is true. But in one in which countries are putting up barriers to trade, domestic production becomes an even more vital asset, both in terms of price and energy security.

However, while the UK should continue to produce oil and gas, we must also decarbonise at a faster rate. We need to do this as part of global efforts to stop global warming and also to modernise our economy.

This latest crisis underscores the importance of a third reason: the sooner we switch to an energy system dominated by renewables and nuclear, the faster we will achieve genuine energy security and be insulated against global economic turmoil over which we have little to no control.