Economic Scenarios

The United Kingdom begins the exploitation of new oil and gas fields in the North Sea, despite the green transition

UK regulators approved the development plan for the Rosebank oil and gas project in the North Sea on Wednesday, paving the way for operator Equinor to proceed with a $3.8 billion investment in the field, which has sparked controversy in Britain amid debates over the need for new oil and gas projects.

The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) on Wednesday granted development and production consent to the Rosebank field north-west of Shetland, the largest untapped resource discovered on the UK continental shelf.


“Today we approved the Rosebank Field Development Plan which allows the owners to proceed with their project,” an NSTA spokesperson said in a statement. “The FDP is allocated in accordance with our published guidelines and taking into account net zero considerations throughout the project lifecycle.”

Approval for Rosebank was delayed due to concerns over whether the development plan would meet electrification requirements for net zero emissions. These requirements are part of the so-called North Sea Transition Deal, an agreement between the UK government and the offshore industry to reduce emissions from oil and gas development and production as much as possible.

Following development consent from the regulator today, Equinor and its partner Ithaca Energy have made the final investment decision to advance Phase 1 of Rosebank, investing $3.8 billion, the major said Norwegian.

Total recoverable resources in the Rosebank field are estimated at approximately 300 million barrels of oil, with Phase 1 targeting approximately 245 million barrels of oil.
Equinor plans to develop the field with subsea wells tied to a redeployed floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, with start-up expected in 2026-2027. Oil will be transported to refineries via tanker shuttles, while gas will be exported via the West of Shetland pipeline system to mainland Scotland.

Equinor currently supplies 29% of the UK's gas and 15% of the UK's oil, the company said.

Of course, the project's approval was criticized by Greenpeace UK, who called the Rosebank development “a disaster for the climate and for people's energy bills”. At the same time, however, these resources guarantee oil and gas, i.e. energy stability, to the United Kingdom, making it independent from any energy crises such as those of 2021-22


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The article The United Kingdom begins the exploitation of new oil and gas fields in the North Sea, despite the green transition comes from Economic Scenarios .


This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/il-regno-unito-da-il-via-allo-sfruttamento-di-nuovi-giacimenti-petrolio-e-gas-nel-mare-del-nord-nonostante-la-transizione-green/ on Wed, 27 Sep 2023 13:37:32 +0000.