The 800 million barrel oilfield getting Boris Johnson in trouble

North Sea oil platform [image credit: matchtech.com]

Politics versus climate dogma. Oil products are still in high demand, so blocking one project to make some sort of point wouldn’t make any difference to UK consumption levels. Recent events showed the chaos that can easily happen when fuel isn’t readily available at filling stations. But climate obsessives will drone on endlessly about such things anyway.
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The planned Cambo oilfield in the U.K.’s North Sea, thought to hold 800 million barrels of oil, faced significant pressure in the lead up to COP26, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared hypocritical in his promise for a clean energy transition while giving the go-ahead on a new oil exploration project.

Following the global climate summit, will Cambo go ahead? — asks OilPrice.com.

The proposed exploration would take place in the Cambo oil field, located around 125km west of the Shetland Islands, at a depth of between 1,050m to 1,100m underwater.

Johnson continues to back the project, stating that as licensing approval took place in 2001, well before recent considerations for new exploration licensing restrictions, there is no reason to cancel a project that will support the U.K.’s energy security in the coming years.

If the project goes ahead, operations in the field could start as early as 2022, with Cambo remaining active for the following 25 years. The development could also help to provide over 1000 jobs, in an industry that suffered greatly during the pandemic.

Climate activists are staunchly against the new development, suggesting that the first phase of the project alone, which will see the production of 150 million barrels of oil, could produce emissions equivalent to running a coal power plant for 16 years.

This August, energy activists delivered an open letter addressed to Johnson in opposition to the project, which received 80,000 signatures.

Continued here.