No Rosebank Decision as a Reporter Reaches the Field at Last
No decision on the Rosebank oil field has been published, and nothing on the government’s own service post-dates July. The energy secretary holds the call, which is larger than the Jackdaw approval granted on Wednesday, would emit more and could earn more. A journalist has now visited the vessel for the first time.
We have now reported this story three times without a decision, which is itself the fact: the field was consented under the previous government in 2023, that consent was ruled unlawful by the Court of Session last year for failing to account for the emissions from burning the fuel, and work short of production has continued while fuller assessments are prepared. The vessel sits 80 miles north-west of Shetland with 122 people aboard, in waters its operator’s chief executive calls “as harsh as you get anywhere in the world”; a technician described a 30-metre heave passing through last week. Estimates put the field at 300 to 500 million barrels, perhaps 25 years of production. The arguments are unchanged and both are sincere. A production supervisor said approval “would see us out to retirement… We need to see this approved.” The director of the campaign group that won the court case says Rosebank “would be a disastrous decision and a terrible deal for ordinary people”. Polling published this week found Jackdaw’s approval supported by 52% to 15%.