Cabinet Reported Split Over the Rosebank Oil Decision
The chancellor is reported to favour approving the Rosebank oil field and the energy secretary to oppose it, with the prime minister deciding if they cannot agree. She holds the decision. Nothing has been published, and her department still says no decision has been taken.
We have now reported this four times without a decision, and the sourcing deserves stating plainly rather than smoothing: the chancellor’s position is unnamed and inferred, resting on “it is understood”, though it is consistent with his on-record remarks about North Sea revenues feeding the new energy wealth fund. The energy secretary’s position is the only one on the record, and it is a distinction rather than a refusal: “One is a gasfield that caters for the domestic market, while the other is an oilfield that is mainly for export.” Officials say she has not decided. Downing Street declined to comment. The scale is what makes it hard: Rosebank would emit roughly seven times the carbon of Jackdaw, which was approved last Wednesday, and its consent was ruled unlawful by the Court of Session last year for failing to account for the emissions of burning the fuel. A second approved outlet carries the same split with the same alignment, also on unnamed sourcing for the chancellor’s side.