The government is pushing to open up new oil and gas fields In the North Sea, despite its climate pledges. In the middle of the current gas price crisis, Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, said he wants to see more oil and gas investment in the North Sea, even though his government has acknowledged that increasing domestic production won’t lower energy bills.
Rishi Sunak, reportedly wants to fast track six new fields this year alone. For a liveable climate, we can’t have any new oil and gas fields.
The UK Government knows this but is choosing the short-term interests of oil and gas companies over the wellbeing of the people of the UK and our climate. We can’t let this happen.
Here's what we know is going on and what we can do about it.
The list of oil and gas fields that the government reportedly wants to greenlight this year is quite sketchy. Of the six projects, three are already approved or producing (so already green-lit), one is a relatively small gas field and the other two are oil fields, one of which – Rosebank – is enormous. This is the one to watch.
The Rosebank oil field accounts for 75% of the total reserves the government apparently wants fast tracked. Rosebank contains more than 300 million barrels of oil. That’s almost double the size of the Cambo oil field.
But, the UK exports 80% of its oil. Which means that the oil from Rosebank will never reach the UK.
North Sea oil and gas isn’t a national asset. It belongs to the oil and gas companies that hold the licenses. In the case of Rosebank, the majority owner is Norwegian giant Equinor, and it will sell Rosebank’s oil wherever it can get the highest price. Equinor is majority owned by the Norwegian state. So the profits from Rosebank will go to the Norwegian public.
Opening up new oil and gas projects will only worsen the energy problem in the UK, which is over-reliant on gas. It won’t lower household bills, as the Business Minister, Greg Hands admits: “It’s the global price [of gas] that sets the UK price”. And new investment in fossil fuel infrastructure will just lock us into an expensive, dirty energy source for decades longer than is necessary. All it will do is make a few oil and gas companies and their shareholders very rich.
Shell just reported annual profits for last year of £14 billion, BP raked in almost £10 billion and Equinor made £23 billion. That’s nearly 50 billion reasons why these companies want to keep drilling.
There is no UK public benefit from opening up new oil and gas fields. It’ll keep our energy bills high and push past warming of 1.5C, the limits for a safe and liveable future.
To lower energy bills, the government needs to redirect new investment into more affordable, homegrown renewable energy. It is now cheaper to generate electricity using renewables than it is from gas.
We need the shift away from oil and gas to be fair, which means making sure that oil and gas workers have good jobs to move to and the communities that depend on the industry are looked after. With the right policies, a just transition can create more than three jobs in clean industries for every North Sea oil and gas job at risk.
But these jobs won’t be created without a clear plan from the government. Each new oil and gas field delays this transition to clean energy. Their focus is on short-term profit, not the large scale, rapid change we need to tackle the climate crisis and build a more affordable and greener energy system.
The UK has the best renewable resources in Europe. It’s time the UK government stopped listening to oil and gas bosses and supports cleaner, cheaper renewable energy.
Step 1: Tell the UK government that we don’t want new oil and gas projects.
