Rosebank – this is not only the name of a famous Scottish whiskey, but also a huge oil and gas field in the North Sea. The controversial mining can now begin there, a good 130 kilometers northwest of the Shetland Islands. The responsible authority, the North Sea Transition Authority, announced this on Wednesday. The British government welcomed the decision. Minister responsible for Energy Security and Net Zero, Claire Coutinho, said it made sense to “use our own supplies in the North Sea”. However, massive criticism came from the opposition and climate activists.
Rosebank is considered the largest undeveloped oil field in British waters. The two companies Equinor and Ithaca Energy can now begin work. If everything goes according to plan, 69,000 barrels of oil per day will be produced from 2026 until the target of a total of 300 million barrels is reached. In order for this to be successful, the companies are investing 3.8 billion dollars, the equivalent of around 3.6 billion euros.
The decision comes at an opportune time for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Just a week ago he announced a “more pragmatic approach” to climate policy. Sunak not only postponed the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in Great Britain from 2030 to 2035. The ban on installing new oil and gas heaters was also postponed for several years. Sunak hopes to get out of the polls. His Tories are currently between 15 and 20 percent behind Labor.
Sunak wants to distance himself more from the Labor Party
In addition to postponing the end of combustion engines, Sunak’s strategy to distance himself more from Labor leader Keir Starmer is also to grant new licenses to extract oil and gas. The Prime Minister believes that this will not only create new jobs, but above all strengthen national energy security. Starmer has already declared that if he wins the general election next year, he will no longer issue any new licenses for oil and gas production in order not to endanger the goal of climate neutrality.
Sunak, on the other hand, can rely on the North Sea Transition Authority’s assessment that the development of the Rosebank oil field is in line with Britain’s Net Zero target. The companies involved also see it that way. Ithaca Energy said on Wednesday that it wanted to ensure that emissions per barrel of oil and gas were kept as low as possible.
The only Green MP in the House of Commons, Caroline Lucas, described the Rosebank decision as “the greatest act of environmental vandalism in my lifetime”. No one is suggesting that the taps of the oil fields be turned off immediately, but it is reckless to insist on producing more oil and gas at a time when production should actually be stopped. Philip Evans, climate activist at Greenpeace UK, made similar comments. In his view, the Rosebank decision is “nothing more than a license for fossil fuel companies to ruin the climate.”
There are also voices in Sunak’s Conservative Party who are critical of the Prime Minister’s new climate policy course. Former business and energy minister Alok Sharma said he was “concerned about the collapse of the political consensus in the United Kingdom on climate change.” Jacob Rees-Mogg, also a former economics minister, sees it completely differently. He praised Sunak for postponing the end of the combustion engine. At the same time, he warned the Prime Minister against introducing legal quotas for electric cars. Sunak is reportedly planning to fine car manufacturers if a certain proportion of their new cars sold are not fully electric. Loud Times This proportion should be at least 52 percent in 2028 and then rise to 80 percent by 2030.