The definitive guide to Britain's success in the twenty-first century
Oh yes, loads of lovely billions of barrels just under Gatwick. In fact enough to keep the UK going for many years, equivalent to a large slice of what was under the North Sea.
So, what should we do with it? CST has come up with two options.
As a UK resource it may be tapped at any future date. This automatically provides the UKeconomy with a significant back-stop. It would underpin the value of Britain and thus the pound sterling, along with a balance against our national indebtedness. Even at current values it is worth around £400bn and would make a difference. At historically higher oil values, it would be worth as much as the UK's national debt.
Hopefully, with this option as a back-stop we would never need to use it. This would then provide a future resource as a more useful scarce source for industrial manufacturing rather than just burning it for fuel in the short term.
CST thinks the above option a little limp, and so we have another option:-
We own this oil. The Government could ring-fence the profits from its extraction. This profit is put directly into a specific Hydrogen Fund to power the Hydrogen Plan. Only enough oil is tapped to provide for this fund's investment requirements.
See: The Hydrogen Plan
CST
Summary
How best to utilise the bonanza discovery under Gatewick? Will the UK just add oil to the climate-change fire, or could we be creative and do something spectacular with this UK wide 'lottery win'?