UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing mounting pressure from MPs over plans to potentially support the controversial North Sea Rosebank oil development.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is understood to be supportive of a new application for consent for development of the field, led by Norway’s Equinor (OSL: EQNR), after a judge ruled its licence was “unlawful”.
Equinor and its partner Ithaca Energy (LON: ITH) were allowed by the judge to continue development of what has been described as one of the UK’s most significant oil and gas fields but they will have to resubmit an environmental assessment of the project.
The assessment will be subject to new guidelines for the industry which the Labour Government has pledged to deliver in Springtime.
But reports have suggested Labour is at loggerheads over sticking to its manifesto pledge not to issue new exploration licences, but not to cancel ones that have already been issued.
Rosebank was awarded a licence in 2023, but MPs are mobilising against supporting the assessment.
The Labour Growth Group – a large caucus of mostly new Labour MPs – will not take a position backing Rosebank, although the group did give its backing to Heathrow expansion which was announced by Reeves last week, a report in the Guardian has suggested.
Several MPs also spoke anonymously to the paper, warning more criticism would be forthcoming if approval was being pushed by the Treasury.
Meanwhile, chairs of a number all-party parliamentary groups focusing on climate change, renewable energy and net zero including Luke Murphy, Polly Billington, and Alex Sobel signed a letter published in the Times suggesting that “doubling down on fossil fuels locks the UK into a declining sector”.
It added: “Take the Rosebank field, for example. Much has been made of its supposed benefits for energy security, but the reality is that its oil will be exported to the global market.”
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