Rosebank oilfield was unlawfully approved 


Photo: Greenpeace

Last month, at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, the UK Government admitted that the country’s Rosebank oilfield off Shetland, was approved unlawfully by the previous Conservative administration, because the environmental assessment only considered the climate impacts of the process of extracting the oil and gas, and not the greenhouse gases that would be released when the oil and gas were eventually burned.

This follows on from a separate decision in June by the UK Supreme Court, ruling on  plans to drill an oil well in Surrey, that both types of emissions should be included in an environmental impact assessment.

The Rosebank developer Equinor accepted that their new field is unlawful, but argued they should be allowed to continue developing it because otherwise they’d face financial losses. Greenpeace and Uplift, who brought the judicial review, are asking the court to cancel the drilling licence for Rosebank and also a licence granted to a Shell subsidiary, BG International, to drill for gas in the Jackdaw field in the North Sea. The Rosebank oilfield is estimated to release more carbon dioxide than the annual emissions of the world’s 28 poorest countries combined, including Uganda and Mozambique.

The judge, Lord Ericht, now has to make a decision, which may take months. If he cancels the drilling licences, Equinor and BGI may well reapply for fresh licences to drill both fields,

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