Trump assumes that the United Kingdom will exploit North Sea oil with Burnham

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has advocated this Sunday for the British Government to authorize the exploitation of North Sea oil with the arrival of Andy Burnham to the position of prime minister and has criticized the “very ugly” mills installed in the waters of Aberdeen, on the Scottish coast.

“The people of Aberdeen, Scotland, are dancing in the streets because the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has declared that he is going to fully open up the incalculable oil in the North Sea,” Trump said in a message posted on social media.

The US president has highlighted that it is one of the best quality oils on Earth and that “it has hundreds of years left” of exploitation. “The United Kingdom will go from being an impoverished disaster to one of the richest countries in the world,” he argued.

Trump has reproached London for spending “billions to buy oil from Norway”, something “ridiculous” considering the “great potential” of the United Kingdom. “Open North Sea oil. We love you, Scotland!” he concluded.

Bunham has stated that he has “an open mind” on the issue of North Sea oil, despite the fact that the electoral program with which his formation, the Labor Party, won the 2024 elections with an absolute majority rules out granting new exploitation licenses. Burnham himself has assured that he will comply with the electoral program.

The official position of the Labor Party is that the exploitation of oil in the North Sea does not reduce the price of fuel for the British end consumer and that it does not help combat climate change. The Green Party thus urges Burnham not to breach one of the main electoral commitments.

North Sea oil was discovered in 1965 and by the early 1980s the UK was exporting more oil than it imported. Aberdeen became the oil capital of Europe and half a million jobs were created. In 1988, the worst oil spill occurred at Piper Alpha, where 167 people died. In the last decade production has been reduced, but new deposit discoveries continue to be made in the area.