UK's ill-thought 'tech education reboot' for 14-year-olds

Last week, the latest occupant of 10 Downing Street Andy Burnham - the UK's sixth Prime Minister since David Cameron left office in 2016 and the Labour party's second - came up with what he wants British voters to believe is a clever education policy. 

But in truth, it appears to be a pretty stale, ill-thought and repackaged one associated with his predecessor Keir Starmer. 

So, here's the backstory in case you haven't heard - on Monday, July 27 the egregious Burnham - UK PM, media anointed 'King of the North' and former Mayor of Manchester - declared: "From today Britain will value the hard hat as much as the graduation cap."  

Under his "new" instituted "fundamental changes" to the UK education system, Burnham said 14-year-olds will be able to get "early access" to technical education, skills training, work experience and connections with employers. But upon deeper examination, it falls apart as political claptrap. 

For starters, there's a glaring lack of originality as the announcement's own first footnote states: "Most secondary schools already offer some form of technical qualification, but the PM’s new plan will boost quality, availability and status of the offer."

There appears to be no clarification on how or what would be different - just a lukewarm, vague, political rehash of what Starmer said in 2025 and changed nothing! But fanboys and girls from the media to the Labour party were promptly sent out to regurgitate that the move is some sort of a profound change which it isn't, accompanied by cheesy, cringy videos featuring Burnham himself.

The announcement also contains little to no clarity on funding. Even British teaching bodies and unions are flummoxed, to put it mildly, in their pursuit of some differentiators. At least the UK Labour party's members of parliament - many of whom posted same lauding soundbites in 2025 - can copy and paste them with minor edits.

Here's The Oilholic's bit of repurposing of what yours truly said in 2025 from his own observations as an energy and industry analyst and those of widely known industry stakeholders. Of course, it is great to prioritise other educational routes that break the norm! Germany has done so better than most. But they start it at 15 going on to 16 post-secondary school.

At 14 and secondary school, its about firming up the basics in English, mathematics, core sciences (especially chemistry and physics), geography, etc. if technical pathway is one of their liking. The chosen year is NOT ideal at all in The Oilholic's opinion.

Intertwining it with future employment prospects of 16 to 24-year-olds or NEETs ("Not in education, employment or training") matters. Yet, the root cause of alarmingly high UK youth unemployment isn't necessarily that young people don't have the skills - rather the British macroeconomic climate of the past two years that has clobbered the appetite of business and industry to hire, right down to the Labour party's "policy gems" and related factors such as: 

• Dogma-driven national insurance and minimum wage hikes without any thought process on their impact on the ability of businesses to hire. 
• A draconian employment rights act largely drawn up by people who have never run any business or industry but think they can preach and lecture those who do. 
• Businesses and industries up and down the UK face the highest commercial energy prices among major developed nations. Yet, the Net Zero man behind it all - former Energy Secretary Ed Miliband - is now prancing around the world clocking taxpayer supported airmiles as the country's Foreign Secretary.
• There is widespread deindustrialisation in the UK with only four operational refineries (ExxonMobil Fawley, Phillips 66 Humber, Valero Pembroke and Essar Stanlow) down from six in 2024 when the Labour party came to power, and ten in 1997. That alone gives a flavour of opportunity and capacity decimation in the engineering and industrial value chain of the UK. 

Contrary to Labour's claim, such economic losses along with those from over-taxed UK offshore exploration and production, will likely not be replaced by new green industries within and beyond the energy spectrum - and remains a headcount improbability even with subsidy support. So, no amount introduction of technical and industrial subjects taught at 14 will reverse things if there's a diminishing core industrial and commercial base for the youth to turn to for employment.

Burnham's move - if you can call it at that given all that's come with it are waffly and vacuous soundbites - will do nothing to assuage fears of a lost generation because as an economy the UK is staring at lost industries and purpose.

Most Labour PMs from Clement Attlee to Tony Blair, typically began their time in office offering a vision of the future. But Burnham started his in July by offering multiple, garbled, made-for-media, and often contradictory "visions" looking backwards, like a sample meant to test public opinion and focus groups to gauge its shelf-life. This "policy" is / will be no different.

Finally, if it's so groundbreaking - with no plan or extra funding attached - Labour party and Burnham should subject it to proper scrutiny which has been sadly and unsurprisingly lacking. And alongside it remains a lack of understanding that vocational education does not mean giving up on the academic side especially at the age of 14. 

Well that's all for the moment folks! More musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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© Gaurav Sharma 2026. Photo: Downing Street, London, UK sign © paulbloch / Pixabay, Aug 2017.

That 'other' oil and gas market risk to fret about

Earlier this week, fuel shortages in Russia brought that 'other' geopolitical risk for the oil market into sharp focus - the Russia-Ukraine War that's been raging since 2022. 

That's after attacks by Ukraine on Russia's energy infrastructure caused chaos at the country's pumps impacting 35% of the Russian population. 

This is festering wider discontent as Ukrainian attacks literally hit peoples lives from the pump to the supermarket. Additionally, the lack of service at the pumps in Moscow, which is also facing shortages, is a prestige issue. That's why Siberian volumes are being redirected to the capital. It has led to some levels of improvement.

Ironically, what has also improved the situation temporarily over the past week is Ukraine's own internal disagreements on what to target in Russia, and some attacks have shifted away from refineries and fuel depots to other economic targets. They will return.

So, where is all this going? Issue here for the Kremlin is that the statistics are quite damning. For the Russian government there is not a single region of the country, including the capital, that hasn't been impacted by the fuel shortages. 

This is astonishing for a country of Russia's size with a population of 143 million people. President Vladimir Putin's response would / is proving to be hard to predict. 

Perhaps it's 50:50 in terms of escalating the conflict in a more hardline way or latching on to US President Donald Trump's offer of mediating some form of peace with Kiev. But based on past form, Putin is not known to give in to pressure. 

The energy market and indeed the world are truly in uncharted waters as this profound geopolitical crisis of our age festers on in the background while the world frets over the US-Iran debacle.

This was the subject of yours truly's latest interview on TRT World's Roundtable program with host Enda Brady. Here's the link to the full broadcast should you wish to view it. But that's all for the moment folks! More market musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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© Gaurav Sharma 2026. Photo I: Fueling up a car © andreas160578 / Pixabay, Mar 2017. Photo II: Energy analyst Gaurav Sharma on TRT World on July 27, 2026 © TRT World, July 2026.

Fresh US-Iran tension = higher oil prices. What's next?

Fresh tension in the Middle East, fresh exchange of fire between the US and Iran, a threat from President Donald Trump to impose a 20% charge on transits in the Strait of Hormuz (subsequently retracted), and a fresh US blockade of Iranian ports that has followed since can all only mean one thing - higher oil prices. 

Just when you thought that a normalisation of the crude market was on the horizon, Brent futures had fallen to pre-War pricing levels, and oil glut chatter resurfaced - disruption came glaring back. Versus last week, both Brent and WTI are up by double-digits. That is to be expected when a key maritime artery through which a fifth of the world's oil and LNG transit remains severely disrupted. 

When Iran initially started attacking ships and tankers transiting through the Strait of Hormuz (again) a fortnight ago for using the southern Hormuz corridor in Oman's territorial waters versus its own northern corridor, the idea was perhaps to see what the US response would be, re-assert its authority, and more generally poke Trump as it was. 

Not sure what the Iranians were expecting, other than what's since happened - a overwhelming show of force by US, a reimposition of a blockade on Iranian oil and more turmoil. The big question for the market is not where we are currently at, but rather where is this is going? 

A prolonged disruption can now only lead to one outcome - a diminished importance of the Strait of Hormuz over the medium-term with the rest of the region contemplating alternative pipeline routes, having taken a cue from the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

And for the moment, we'll continue to see elevated - but not out of control - oil prices as the true cost of this latest costly miscalculation is counted. That's all for the moment folks! More market musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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© Gaurav Sharma 2026. Photo: VLCC Kelly moored at the Port of Fujairah, UAE. © Gaurav Sharma, September 2016.

Oil down to pre Iran War prices, glut chatter & more

Trading sessions over the past weeks have seen oil prices drop back down to levels last seen before the Iran War began on February 28. They are as far removed as possible from alarmist predictions of $200 per barrel oil prices at the height of the conflict. 

Past the midway point of the current trading year, and having endured an almighty geopolitical shock to the system, Brent is trading just above $70 per barrel while the WTI's just below it. 

Overall, both benchmarks are now down nearly 35% on a three-month basis covering the most stressful flashpoints of the war in the last three months. 

We were largely kept there by copious amounts of US crude, especially light sweet crude, out in the market, as well as other sources of non-OPEC / non-Middle Eastern crude from Norway, Canada, Brazil and Guyana. The tenacity of the UAE and Saudi Arabia in moving their crude despite severe disruption in the Strait of Hormuz also helped to a degree. 

With the risk premium having receded, a 60-day negotiation between Washington DC and Tehran now underway, and maritime traffic moving a bit more meaningfully through the Strait of Hormuz - attention ought to turn to a normalisation of the market. 

Instead, chatter about an oil glut has returned with a vengeance with everyone from the International Energy Agency to Goldman Sachs bringing it into sharp focus for Q1 2027. Is it right to talk about it? Yes. Is it a tad premature? Also, yes!

Normalisation cannot occur in a snap when a fifth of the world's oil supply has been disrupted by the event. Tankers are out of place, cargoes stuck in the Gulf will take time to get going, there are production concerns, especially in Iraq and Kuwait, and infrastructure that's been damaged would need repairing. 

Much of this would take much of the remainder of the year to get back on track. That said the UAE's recent exit from OPEC, and the OPEC+ production hike coupled with higher non-OPEC production would put additional barrels on the market. So, oversupply could become a market feature in the face of lower demand late into Q1 2027. However, for this to happen early on in Q1 2027, much would depend on China's intake. 

In a sense, had the Iran War not happened that surplus was widely expected late into Q1 2026, rather than potentially a year later which is where the market finds itself. As for 2026 itself, in terms of fresh prospection, Wood Mackenzie identified 23 high-impact wells in 2026. It noted that these wells either have the potential to prove the viability of frontier basins or build upon the success of super-giant discoveries of 2025. 

Petrobras's Morpho-1 (800 million barrels of oil equivalent potential) has the potential to open up the Foz do Amazonas basin and Equinor's S-M-1378-1 in Brazil's Santos Basin could prove the viability of pre-salt microbial carbonates, above and beyond BP's Bumerangue discovery.

Finally, before one takes your leave, here's yours truly's latest Energy Connects column on how supermajors are spending their Iran War windfall, and here's one for Forbes on the rise and rise of the Munich-Dresden corridor for energy and industrial startups.  

Well that's all for the moment folks! More market musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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© Gaurav Sharma 2026. Photo: Oil production site. © Monika Wrangel / Pixabay, May 2015.

That's a wrap from Energy Projects Conf & Expo 2026

The Energy Projects Conference & Expo 2026 concluded on Wednesday with further discussions on AI solutions aimed at delivering next generation of projects. 

Delegates heard how generative engineering was slashing design-to-groundbreaking cycles by 50% through automated layout optimisation and AI-driven simulation.

Later in the afternoon, Lindsay See, Commissioner, US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said the authority was working toward fair and predictable permitting as project sponsors and regulators confront grid infrastructure and supply costs. 

Away from the plenaries, the Oilholic took time out to head to the event's expo where over 400-plus exhibitors were out in full force courting business in the EPC sphere and displaying their state of the art solutions for the industry. 

Overall, the conference and expo saw over 7,000 attendees, and more than 250 speakers - present company included - who spoke across five content streams. Yours truly also took time out to record the next Schneider Electric insight video while out here in America's energy capital. 

Hany Fouda, Senior Vice President, Process, Discrete & Hybrid Automation Industrial Automation Business and André Marino, SVP Industrial Automation North America, Schneider Electric, discussed some of the biggest shifts they are currently seeing in how EPCs are approaching automation and digitalisation. 

We also discussed the company's EcoStruxure Foxboro Software-Defined Automation products - the industry’s first open, software-defined Distributed Control System. It was launched by Schneider Electric earlier this year. Watch this space, details and the video coming soon! 

And that's a wrap from the Energy Projects Conference & Expo 2026. It's almost time to head back home to London from Houston folks! More market musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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© Gaurav Sharma 2026. Photo I: Energy analyst Gaurav Sharma at the Energy Projects Conference & Expo 2026 in Houston, Texas, US on June 16, 2026. © Gaurav Sharma, June 2026. Photo II: (L to R) Energy analyst Gaurav Sharma, Hany Fouda, Senior Vice President, Process, Discrete & Hybrid Automation Industrial Automation Business, and André Marino, SVP Industrial Automation North America, Schneider Electric, speak at the Energy Projects Conference & Expo 2026 in Houston, Texas, US on June 16, 2026. © Schneider Electric, June 2026.