The government has upset environmentalists by allowing gas to be taken from the Jackdaw field. To placate them the government has promised to put all the gas back in due course.
'It's quite straightforward,' said a government apologist. 'We use the gas now, while it's expensive. And then later, when it's cheap, we'll buy the equivalent amount and pump it back into the ground. That fully offsets the environmental damage done.
'As an enhancement we might use carbon capture technology to store carbon in black lumps which scientists call 'coal'. And we could pump these lumps back under the North Sea.
'This policy is just a one-off for the Jackdaw field. We aren't going to refill the Brent oil field. That would be catastrophically expensive. Although we are considering putting energy back into the environment by making wind turbines go in the opposite direction.'
