The UK Found Another Way to Destroy Itself

When the Fawley Refinery opened in southern England in 1921 as an offshoot of Standard Oil, the company deliberately kept a low profile.

The project was a workaround for US and UK tariffs. So there were no speeches, no ribbon cutting, not much news coverage. One day there was no refinery, the next day it was operating.

Oil was still a novelty in coal-dominated Britain, so the refining operation was relatively small at first.

But over the years, as demand for oil grew exponentially, the Fawley refinery ended up in the hands of what is today known as ExxonMobil. And soon the refinery began producing everything from jet fuel to diesel.

The refinery closed during World War II—considered a strategic vulnerability and target for the Nazis.

But after the war, on September 14, 1951, the Fawley Refinery reopened. And this time, it was a big deal.

The reopening ceremony included the largest lunch banquet in British history, attended by dignitaries and officiated by Prime Minister Clement Attlee himself.

The grand reopening was seen as an integral part of a broader postwar industrial revival.

And Fawley became a massive project, featuring state-of-the-art technology to process 270,000 barrels of oil per day and contributing over $100 million annually to British trade. It was completed two months ahead of schedule despite a harsh winter.

The fanfare encapsulated the attitude of the day: oil was a critical strategic national resource. They knew that without energy, they were lost and would cease to exist as a civilization. It also created trade benefit, prosperity, jobs, and tax revenue.

And THAT’S why the Prime Minister was honored to reopen the oil refinery. It was important to the British economy.

But it didn’t stop there. By the early 1970s, there were more than 20 refineries in the UK.

In time, however, some refineries were squeezed out by natural competitive pressures; it became hard to compete with brand-new Chinese and Indian refineries which operated at much lower cost.

Still, as recently as a decade ago, Britain had ten operating oil refineries.

And then came the war.

Not the war in Ukraine. And not the war in the Middle East either.

I’m talking about the war the British government launched on its own country—a war on their own energy sector.

In the holy name of climate change, the British government imposed a series of de-industrializing policies aimed directly at the energy sector, specifically to destroy oil and gas.

They imposed a Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, which ramps up over the next decade until 100% of all new cars and vans sold must be zero-emission by 2035. That includes a ban on new petrol and diesel car sales starting in 2030, with limited exceptions for hybrids until 2035.

Manufacturers that don’t comply face still penalties.

In addition, the British government halted all new licenses for North Sea oil and gas exploration.

Plus they slapped a 78% windfall profits tax on oil and gas companies operating in the UK.

And those are just a few of the highlights.

In 1951, the entire British government was unified in its support for domestic energy production and refining.

In 2025, the government is doing everything it can to eliminate the entire sector—economic consequences be damned.

They are now down to a total of just four refineries, after losing two this year alone.

Fawley is still hanging on. Yet it spends between £70 and £80 million each year just to pay the British government for the crime of emitting CO₂.

Last week, the Energy Security and Net Zero Select Committee—a group of politicians from the House of Commons—held a meeting to discuss what’s happening in the energy sector right now.

One of the witnesses was the head of ExxonMobil in the UK.

He explained that Britain’s energy sector is “in existential crisis at the moment.”

He and others in the industry pointed out the obvious lunacy of the UK’s energy policy.

British demand for energy and petroleum has not gone down. The only difference is that now, they’re just importing it all.

Someone, somewhere, is still producing the CO2 emissions—whether it’s Saudi Arabia or Norway just across the sea. The carbon still goes into the atmosphere.

The difference is that Britain has gone from producing energy and capturing all the economic benefits—jobs, tax revenue, trade surplus—to simply importing it all.

In many cases, they’re importing from their own North Sea basin… only now it’s coming from Norway.

The Norwegians must be astonished at the stupidity of British policy. At this point, Britain’s energy strategy seems to be: Make Norway Great Again.

Britain is still consuming the energy, which means they’re still emitting CO₂.

The only difference is that Britain no longer produces the CO2—they’ve just outsourced the emissions to someone else. They’ve gone from energy producer to energy consumer, from somewhat self-reliant to almost entirely dependent.

The job losses are staggering. The economic decline is obvious. Energy prices continue to rise. And Britain is now dangerously reliant on foreign powers for the most vital strategic resource a country can control.

You really can’t make up this level of stupidity.

But bear in mind this is also a government that has sacrificed its citizens on the altar of multiculturalism, importing millions of immigrants who actively hate Western culture and values.

We’ve talked about this before— the groomer gangs of Pakistani Muslim men who raped underage girls across England while police, health practitioners, and social workers actively covered it up.

The British Prime Minister killed an investigation into it, calling it “the bandwagon of the far right.”

And when native Brits rise up against the destruction of their homeland, rather than accept responsibility, the government makes them the criminals.

British police now arrest people for “offensive” memes, for saying “we love bacon” near a mosque, or simply for walking through London being “openly Jewish.”

The English flag, according to the government, is now a symbol of far right hatred and intolerance.

Everything else—Islam, migrants, trans pride, Ukrainian security—is more important than delivering basic safety and reasonable cost of living to British taxpayers.

Go online to complain and you risk being thrown in jail.

Are these people evil? I don’t know the answer to that question. But after watching the four-hour committee meeting, I couldn’t believe how ignorant they were.

This is supposed to be the Energy Security Committee. And it seemed like most of these politicians knew absolutely nothing about the energy sector.

The panel had to explain what refining even was to them like they were five.

These people had no idea where crude oil comes from or how the oil trade works.

The only thing they seemed to understand was: “oil bad, wind and solar good.”

And the UK isn’t alone.

You’ve got lunatics all over the US and Europe supergluing themselves to the pavement, glitter-bombing museum artifacts, screaming into cameras about climate justice—actively trying to destroy the energy lifeblood of their own civilization.

It’s hard to think of any sector more widely despised than fossil fuel energy.

Which is one reason why we think the sector right now is so massively undervalued.

They are practically giving oil companies and oil services business away today.

More on that soon.

PS— A great example of an undervalued oil company is one we featured in our investment research newsletter, The 4th Pillar.

Even with low oil prices, it’s making money hand over fist, trades at just 3x earnings, and pays a 12% dividend.

When the anti-oil hysteria inevitably leads to shortages, we think this company will do extremely well. And in the meantime, the dividend alone delivers a solid return.

We’re running a limited-time discount on The 4th Pillar—click here to learn more.

Source

Simon Black is an international investor, entrepreneur and permanent traveler. His daily letter is both educational and entertaining, and we suggest that those who want unbiased, actionable information about global opportunities sign up for Sovereign Man’s free, actionable newsletter at http://www.SovereignMan.com.

From Simon Black of SovereignMan.com

Source: https://www.schiffsovereign.com/trends/the-uk-found-another-way-to-destroy-itself-153838/