Donald Trump has called for the North Sea to be “opened up” as he again attacked offshore windfarm developments.
The US President-elect warned today the UK was making a “very big mistake” after an American oil firm announced it would end its North Sea operations by 2029.
Texan energy giant Apache claimed its British interests had become “uneconomic” as a result of windfall taxes on energy profits imposed by the UK Government.
The company took control of the Forties field in 2003 but suspended all new drilling activity last year.
Responding to the announcement, Trump said in a post on social media: “The UK is making a very big mistake. Open up the North Sea. Get rid of Windmills!”
The American tycoon owns a large golf resort on the Aberdeenshire coast and has regularly criticised offshore windfarms.
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Oil companies have been steadily exiting the North Sea in recent decades with production declining from a peak of 4.4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day at the start of the millennium to around 1.3 million boed today.
The UK Government confirmed last year it would increase a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas producers to 38% from 35% and extend the levy by one year. Ministers want to use the revenue from oil and gas to raise funds for renewable energy projects.
In 2016, Trump reportedly urged Nigel Farage to campaign against wind farms in Scotland because he believes they “sully” the country’s beauty.
He went on to lose a legal battle which sought to overturn planning permission for 11 wind turbines to be constructed near to his Menie estate.
Trump made a series of legal challenges in the Scottish courts and then took the fight to the UK Supreme Court in London.
He argued that planning consent for the wind farm was so imprecise as to make it legally invalid.
The Supreme Court judges delivered a unanimous ruling against him in 2019.
The Trump Organisation said at the time: “This is an extremely unfortunate verdict for the residents of Aberdeen and anyone who cares about Scotland’s economic future.
“The EOWDC (European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre) will completely destroy the bucolic Aberdeen Bay and cast a terrible shadow upon the future of tourism for the area.
“History will judge those involved unfavourably and the outcome demonstrates the foolish, small-minded and parochial mentality which dominates the current Scottish government’s dangerous experiment with wind energy.
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