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Developers of the Rosebank oil field have welcomed the closure of a consultation as a “major step” ahead of a final decision from the UK Government on whether the project can go ahead.
Environmental activists fear the impact that extracting fossil fuels from the UK’s largest remaining untapped oil field – which lies about 80 miles west of Shetland – would have on climate change.
The decision on whether Rosebank and another planned North Sea development, the Jackdaw gas field off the coast of Aberdeen, can go ahead will be a key environmental test for Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
The proposals are both now in the hands of ministers, with the consultation on Jackdaw having closed a week ago
Bosses at Adura, the company behind both projects, said they would result in £10.8 billion of investment – with more than three quarters of this cash expected to be spent in the UK.
Between them, Rosebank and Jackdaw could support 3,500 jobs at the peak of construction, with 880 people then employed over the lifetime of production.
Adura added that Rosebank alone is projected to produce about 69,000 barrels of oil per day at its peak, with this the equivalent to roughly 10% of the anticipated output from the UK Continental Shelf.
And the company said Rosebank and Jackdaw together have the potential to make up 10% of domestic natural gas production.
However, environmentalists claim that Rosebank would produce more than 250 million tonnes of CO2 – equivalent to 70% of UK annual emissions.
The decision on the two projects comes after a summer which has seen soaring temperatures in both the UK and Europe, as well as wildfires in both Britain and the continent.
Robert Palmer, deputy director at Uplift, which campaigns for a transition away from fossil fuels, said: “While the oil and gas industry does everything in its power to push Burnham into Trump’s drill baby, drill agenda, the nation’s new Prime Minister has watched the UK and Europe burn baby, burn.”
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Decision on Jackdaw and Rosebank could be ‘life or death’ in North Sea – Tories