Denmark’s oil and gas bans—an exercise in virtue signalling?

No future rounds to award new E&P licences will take place. Given recent exploration activity, it is unlikely anyone will care

Denmark’s climate, energy and utilities ministry announced to some fanfare in December that what it dubbed “a broad majority” of the country’s MPs had agreed to cancel both the ongoing eighth licensing round and any future oil and gas E&P bidding auctions, as well as committing to ending all oil and gas production by 2050. The ministry’s data on exploration wells drilled suggests it might just as easily have not bothered. In October last year, Total, the largest operator on the Danish continental shelf (DCS) owing to its 2017 acquisition of Maersk, withdrew from the eighth round, triggering the government to enter into talks with all stakeholders on the future of the DCS. Perhaps the big