Outlook In the end, of course, it is all about the money. The Energy and Climate Change Committee's announcement today that a moratorium on deep-water drilling off the coast of the UK should not be imposed does not imply there is no risk of the sort of disaster seen in the Gulf of Mexico last summer. Whatever your views about the safety record of oil and gas explorers, that risk can never be entirely discounted. No, this is a decision based on a head-headed economic view: that such is the demand for oil and the cost of switching to less risky alternative sources of energy, deepwater drilling needs to continue.

Britain lacks the ability to deal with a large-scale North Sea oil spill in bad weather conditions but nonetheless should allow oil companies to continue deep water drilling off the coast, MPs will say today.

Icebergs in the North Sea. Panic stations! What next? A polar bear "threat" to Skegness? In reality, there are lumps of ice in the North Sea, which is hardly surprising, given the recent cold snap. Even salt water freezes eventually.

Dan Haywood is a PSOW (poet/singer/ornithologist/whatever) and this epic 32-song album arises from the labour of slogging around rural Scotland, checking out the birds and meditating on the strangeness of life.

Britain's famously changeable maritime weather is dominated by the mainly westerly winds that come from the North Atlantic, whose water acts as a moderating influence over the extremes of summer heat and winter cold.

People turning up the heating to cope with freezing temperatures sent the gas market into a spin yesterday.

A £150m oil rig deal between US oil group Apache and engineering contractor Offshore Group Newcastle (OGN) will create 1,000 jobs in the North-east over the next 20 months.

A radical shake-up of the UK's North Sea oil industry is expected next year.

Greenpeace has launched legal action to try to halt deepwater oil drilling off the UK.

Britain was battered by strong winds and heavy rain today as storms broke over the country.

It has been a busy week for small-cap oil exploration and production (E&P) companies with an interest in the North Sea. The Government's 26th offshore licensing round – postponed from early 2009 on account of the financial crisis – finally concluded. And out of 2,818 possible blocks on offer, a thoroughly healthy 114 licences covering 268 blocks have been awarded, with another 90 still undergoing environmental assessment which may yet turn into licences.

A Greek tanker collided with a container ship 20 miles (30km) off the Dutch coast today and briefly leaked jet fuel into the North Sea, a Coast Guard spokesman said.