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Tag: Equinor

  • Greens warn government: Greenlighting Jackdaw would be act of climate vandalism

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    This morning the Green Party leadership, Green MPs and Green peers co-signed a letter to the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Miatta Fahnbulleh, to urge her not to approve the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea, citing the fact that it will not reduce energy prices, protect jobs, or give the UK energy sovereignty.

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    Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.

    The full text of the letter is as follows:

    Dear Miatta,

    Do not approve Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea. 

    We are writing in response to alarming reports that you intend to give the go ahead to the Jackdaw gas field as soon as next week. As Green MPs and peers we cannot sit back and watch you proceed unchallenged with this act of climate vandalism.

    Approving new drilling at Jackdaw will not take a penny off energy costs nor protect jobs. As you said last month, “if you care about affordability, North Sea does not solve that problem for you”, with UK bill-payers still facing the highest energy prices in three years this winter, as a result of our continued exposure to volatile global gas markets. Further, jobs in the North Sea have been in decline for two decades. Jackdaw would only create 27 direct full-time jobs, with the platform unstaffed for most of its operating life and much of the construction already having taken place in Norway. It is completely dishonest of your government to use the legitimate concerns of job security and the cost of living to falsely justify more fossil fuel extraction. 

    Approving Jackdaw will not give the UK energy sovereignty. Even under the most optimistic scenarios Jackdaw is projected to contribute just 2% of UK gas demand over its lifetime (Uplift, 2026). We know that the only way to achieve energy sovereignty is to get the UK off fossil fuels as fast as possible, by significantly scaling up renewable energy and electrification.

    Approving new oil and gas will add fuel to the fire of the climate emergency. Last week, the UN Environment Programme warned that “immediate and sustained cuts to greenhouse gas emissions” were crucial to avoid the worst impacts of climate breakdown. Approving more fossil fuels, at a time when the UK has just experienced record-breaking and deathly heatwaves and wildfires, is a complete dereliction of responsibility. 

    Approving Jackdaw will line the pockets of shareholders. The operating company, Adura, a joint venture between Shell and Equinor, has been criticised for potentially allowing Shell to write off £1.3 billion in UK tax (Global Witness, 2025). Shell has also faced criticism that it paid little or no tax in this country over several years despite huge global profits. Instead of new drilling, we need to ensure that the existing tax instruments, like the windfall tax, actually bring in the revenue that was promised, and end the subsidies that multinational oil and gas companies have received at UK taxpayers’ expense.

    We are therefore urging you to be straight with the public – and instead focus on measures that would actually bring down bills and create secure jobs, like scaling up cheaper home-grown renewables, rolling out a fully-funded national home insulation programme, fully decoupling the price of electricity from gas, and ending rampant profiteering by energy companies.

    Your government promised change, not continuity. Approving Jackdaw, after the hottest summer on record, isn’t doing things differently. The new Prime Minister must not repeat Keir Starmer’s mistake of treating climate and nature as second order. Change starts with ruling out all new oil and gas.

    Yours sincerely,

    Carla Denyer MP
    Dr Ellie Chowns MP
    Adrian Ramsay MP
    Hannah Spencer MP
    Siân Berry MP
    Zack Polanski, Leader of the Green Party 
    Mothin Ali, Deputy Leader of the Green Party 
    Rachel Millward, Deputy Leader of the Green Party 
    Anthony Slaughter, Wales Green Party Leader
    Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
    Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb

    Greenpeace activists display a billboard during a protest outside Shell headquarters on July 27, 2023 in London.
    Greenpeace activists display a billboard during a protest outside Shell headquarters on July 27, 2023 in London. (Photo: Handout/Chris J. Ratcliffe for Greenpeace via Getty Images)

  • Bill payers vs billionaires: war windfalls for energy elite as bills set to rise

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/bill-payers-vs-billionaires-war-windfalls-energy-elite-bills-set-rise

     A worker collects engine oil as he works at a degassing station in Zubair oil field near Basra, Iraq

    ENERGY firms raked in an excess of £6 billion in Iran war windfall profits this year, it was revealed today as households brace for yet another bill rise at the end of the month.

    Campaigners said profits generated in Britain by these companies equate to over £200 for every household in the country, while a further increase in gas prices is expected in the next Ofgem price cap announcement on August 26.

    Financial results posted by the world’s top energy firms revealed their British profits are only one part of their global profits, totalling £95bn in 2026.

    Analysis from the End Fuel Poverty Coalition (EFPC) revealed the excess profits linked to global energy market disruptions as a result of the US war on Iran, which has increased cost pressures on households in Britain, as well as other countries.

    Researchers looked at financial results posted by BP, Centrica, Chevron, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Iberdrola, Shell and Total.

    EFPC co-ordinator Simon Francis said windfall profits must be considered alongside previous findings saying a third of households are “on the brink of, or are in energy debt.”

    “These price shock profiteers are doing very well out of the Iran conflict, but they are doing little to solve the underlying problems,” Mr Francis said.

    “As people brace for the next price cap announcement on August 26 and a third of households are on the brink of or in energy debt, the energy industry watches the profits climb.”

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/bill-payers-vs-billionaires-war-windfalls-energy-elite-bills-set-rise

  • North Sea oil and gas plans ‘won’t take a penny off our bills,’ campaigners warn as public consultation begins

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/north-sea-oil-and-gas-plans-wont-take-penny-our-bills-campaigners-warn-public-consultation

     Climate activists from Greenpeace and Uplift during a demonstration outside the Scottish Court of Session, Edinburgh, on the first day of the Rosebank and Jackdaw judicial review hearing, November 12, 2024

    CONTROVERSIAL North Sea oil and gas plans “won’t take a penny off our bills” and instead increase “profits of a few,” campaigners warned as a public consultation opened into projects today.

    Fossil fuel firm Adura claimed the Rosebank oil field and Jackdaw development would “deliver the greatest benefit for the UK.”

    But campaigners and researchers with Uplift, which won the legal case against Rosebank in 2025, warned Brits not to fall for the plans which only serve to increase profits for energy firms.

    Its executive director Tessa Khan said: “Rosebank won’t take a penny off our bills or meaningfully boost UK energy supplies — it’s overwhelmingly oil for export.

    “But burning its oil would produce emissions equal to 70 per cent of the UK’s annual total, making it utterly incompatible with safe climate limits.

    “Rosebank has nothing to do with the UK’s energy security and everything to do with increasing the profits of a few, already obscenely wealthy, oil companies.”

    …

    Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/north-sea-oil-and-gas-plans-wont-take-penny-our-bills-campaigners-warn-public-consultation

  • UK Government urged to ‘do the right thing’ and reject Rosebank development

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    https://www.standard.co.uk/business/business-news/uk-government-government-donald-trump-nigel-farage-oil-b1253103.html

    Climate campaigners say the Rosebank oil field will be a ‘defining test’ of the government’s credibility on climate change. (Lucy North/PA)

    Equinor, which owns the majority of the oil field, stressed it was committed to advancing the ‘Rosebank project’

    Climate campaigners have challenged the UK Government to “do the right thing” and turn down plans for drilling in the Rosebank oil field.

    The group Uplift – which wants to see a “rapid and fair transition away from oil and gas production in the UK” – said whether the green light is granted for the development would be the “defining test of this Government’s credibility on climate change”.

    It came as it was confirmed Equinor, which owns an 80% majority stake in the oil field, confirmed it has submitted a scope 3 assessment – setting out all associated greenhouse gas emissions for the project, in compliance with new guidelines from UK authorities.

    And the company said it is “fully committed” to working with all relevant bodies to “advance the Rosebank project”.

    The Rosebank field, which is located some 80 miles west of Shetland, is the UK’s largest untapped oil field and is estimated to contain up to 300 million barrels of oil.

    …

    Robin Wells, director of Fossil Free London, said: “In the face of this decision on the biggest undeveloped oil field in the North Sea, we must be crystal clear. Rosebank will be the defining test of this Government’s climate promise.”

    …

    https://www.standard.co.uk/business/business-news/uk-government-government-donald-trump-nigel-farage-oil-b1253103.html

    Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
    Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
    Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
    Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
    Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.
    Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.

  • Oil and Gas Trade Group Blasts Reform’s Anti-Renewables Agenda

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    Original article by Adam Barnett republished from DeSmog.

    Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaking in Aberdeen. Credit: Reform UK / YouTube

    Nigel Farage’s party was told by Offshore Energies UK to rethink its plan to thwart clean energy.

    LIVERPOOL – The UK’s largest oil and gas trade body has criticised Reform UK’s plans to “turn off the tap” on renewable energy.

    Nigel Farage’s party has tried to present itself as the oil and gas industry’s closest ally, vowing to “drill, baby, drill” in the North Sea and scrap the windfall tax on excess profits, while meeting with oil executives, and courting donations from the sector.

    However, on a panel at the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool on Monday (29 September), a spokesperson for Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) criticised Reform’s plans to end state support for clean energy.

    Natalie Coupar, communications and marketing director at OEUK – members of which include fossil fuel giants BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, and Equinor – said the group is “apolitical” but gives “hard truths to all parties”.

    She said: “One of the things we’ve been saying to Reform very much is, you know, if you’re going to turn on the taps for oil and gas, there’s almost really no point if you’re just going to turn off the taps to renewables.

    “That doesn’t help. We need to keep both those streams open.”

    According to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the UK’s net zero economy grew by 10 percent in 2024, employing almost a million people in full-time jobs.

    Coupar also said it was essential to “hold the consensus on tackling climate change and growing our energy future”.

    A panel at 2025 Labour Party conference sponsored by Offshore Energies UK (OEUK). Credit: DeSmog

    Reform’s Oil Campaign

    Reform has vowed to stop all government subsidies for renewable energy, and has pledged to block solar and onshore wind farms in the local authorities it controls.

    In May, the party’s deputy leader Richard Tice said: “Whether it’s planning blockages, whether it’s judicial reviews, whether it’s lawsuits, whether it’s health and safety notices, we will use every available legal measure to an extreme way in order to frustrate these people.”

    Tice – who has said “there’s no evidence that man-made CO2 is going to change the climate” – met with senior oil executives in May and promised to approve new drilling licences “on day one” of a Reform government.

    Last month, he pledged to overturn the UK’s ban on fracking for shale gas, which he calls “treasure beneath our feet”, and told the industry to “get ready”.

    In April, Reform party treasurer and a billionaire property developer Nick Candy said he was trying to secure donations from oil and gas executives, claiming to have raised £100,000 from one, though this has yet to appear on Reform’s donations register.

    As DeSmog has reported, 92 percent of Reform’s funding between the 2019 and 2024 general elections came from climate science deniers or those with highly polluting interests – a total of £2.3 million.

    Since his election as an MP last year, Farage has spoken at a string of events in the U.S. organised by radical groups backing U.S. President Donald Trump’s pro-fossil fuel agenda. Last December, Farage launched the UK-EU branch of the Heartland Institute, a U.S. climate denial think tank.

    Speaking at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference in London in February, Farage claimed it was “absolutely nuts” for CO2 to be considered to a pollutant. However, he added: “I’m not a scientist. I can’t tell you whether CO2 is leading to warming or not, but there are so many other massive factors.”

    Climate scientists at the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s leading climate science body, have stressed that “it is a statement of fact, we cannot be any more certain; it is unequivocal and indisputable that humans are warming the planet”.

    Original article by Adam Barnett republished from DeSmog.

    Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
    Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
    Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
    Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
    Nigel Farage reminds you that he's the man that brought you Brexit and asks what could possibly go wrong.
    Nigel Farage reminds you that he’s the man that brought you Brexit and asks what could possibly go wrong.