Lates reports show that the UK government has admitted that oil from the controversial Rosebank field will be sold on the international market rather than to UK consumers.
Repeatedly, Ministers in the UK have claimed developing the huge oilfield off Shetland will improve UK energy security and help UK consumers, overriding concerns from climate experts and their own advisers.
In a written answer to a parliamentary question, however, the government appears to accept that the private companies extracting the oil will sell the vast majority internationally, saying: “It is not desirable to force private companies to ‘allocate’ oil and gas produced in the North Sea for domestic use”.
According to available reports, the Rosebank field was given the green light in September and has the potential to produce 500m barrels of oil in its lifetime, which, when burned, would emit as much carbon dioxide as running 56 coal-fired power stations for a year.
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The project is said to have faced stiff resistance, with hundreds of climate scientists and academics and more than 200 organisations, from the Women’s Institute to Oxfam, joining tens of thousands of people across the UK in opposing it.
Last month two campaign groups, Greenpeace and Uplift, announced separate legal challenges to the proposal, which will be heard early this year.
Reacting, the Labour MP, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who submitted the parliamentary question, said that the government’s answer proves Rosebank is not about supplying the UK with oil and gas and that it is purely another gimmick designed to appeal to a section of the electorate which has no concern for either the future of the planet or their own children.
“But that is why we need to plan the transition carefully and fairly, not abandon it and add yet more carbon pollution to the atmosphere.”
The government’s attempt to press ahead with the Rosebank field flies in the face of warnings from scientists. Government spokespeople have repeatedly defended the plan, saying it will “help us meet our energy needs, while also supporting UK jobs, generating tax revenues and attracting investment”.
In the king’s speech the government highlighted the apparent importance of new fossil fuel extraction to energy security: “Legislation will be introduced to strengthen the United Kingdom’s energy security and reduce reliance on volatile international energy markets and hostile foreign regimes. This bill will support the future licensing of new oil and gas fields, helping the country to transition to net zero by 2050 without adding undue burdens on households.”
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
