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October 2023 - Oil and Gas

A third of the UK public feels very unfavourable towards oil, gas, mining and extraction companies: Almost a third of the people polled for a YouGov tracker said that they feel 'very unfavourable' towards oil, gas, mining and extraction companies, with a further 21% saying they felt 'somewhat' unfavourable. This however is an improvement since March, when 37% felt 'very unfavourable' and 23% felt 'somewhat unfavourable'.

The latest survey found that in September 2023 just 10% said they feel 'favourable' towards the industries, with 8% ‘somewhat favourable’ and 2% ‘very favourable’. More than a quarter (27%) said they felt neither favourable or unfavourable, found the research.

The YouGov tracker is conducted monthly and is statistically weighted to the national profile of all adults aged 18 and over in the UK. 

People aged 25-49 were the most unfavourable, found the tracker (56%) followed by 18-24 year-olds (54%). Fifty-two percent of 50-64 year-olds said they felt unfavourable, while just 42% of those aged 65+ said the same. 

Ethics in the oil and gas sector

In another tracker, this one biannual and looking at ethics in the oil and gas sector, respondents were asked to what extent do you believe companies involved in oil and gas extraction behave in an ethical way. A third of the respondents polled overall in the latest reading (June 2023) said oil and gas companies  'are not ethical at all' (32%) a rise from 29% the previous year. Just 2% said companies were 'very ethical, although this is a marginal rise from the 1% it has been since September 2019.

Interestingly, around one in 10 (9%) 18-24 year-olds said they believe oil and gas companies behave in a very ethical way, climbing from 1% in July 2022. A further 14% said they are 'fairly ethical' . In this age group, 30% said they were 'not very ethical' with slightly fewer (28%) saying they are 'not ethical at all’. 

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