The United Kingdom has allowed progress on one of its biggest new oil and gas exploration projects in years, Equinor’s Rosebank field in the North Sea, saying energy security is the country’s priority despite opposition from environmentalists.
Wednesday’s announcement came after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak weakened the country’s climate targets last week, in a move critics said could also encourage other countries to scale back their climate ambitions.
Energy Security Minister Claire Coutinho said the Rosebank field would be less emissions-intensive than older oil and gas projects.
She added: “We will continue to support the UK oil and gas sector to support our energy security, grow our economy and help us transition to cheaper and cleaner energy.”
The basis of the plan to make Rosebank less emissions-intensive is the electrification of the extraction process.
The Norwegian Equinor Group said that the electrification of the field, located west of the Shetland Islands, and which is scheduled to begin production in 2026-2027, will not take place until 2030.
Environmental campaigners have called on the government to halt the development of Rosebank, saying the project conflicts with the plan for a net-zero greenhouse gas economy.
But Sunak threw his support behind the North Sea project in July, saying the UK needed new domestic fossil fuels to improve energy security, and that oil and gas would remain part of the country’s energy mix even in 2050.
The Rosebank field, which is relatively small in the global context, is expected to produce 300 million barrels of oil over its lifetime.
Labour, the main opposition party, which wants to focus on clean energy, said it would respect all licenses granted before the next election, including those for Rosebank.
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