THE UK Government must revoke the licences for the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil fields after opting not to defend legal cases against them, the Scottish Greens have said.
The Labour Government announced on Thursday that the cases against the North Sea oil and gas fields would not be challenged.
Rosebank – considered to be the last major untapped oil field in UK waters – is located 80 miles west of Shetland while Jackdaw is being developed 155 miles east of Aberdeen.
The move has been welcomed by climate action groups but the licences for drilling at the sites have not being withdrawn.
Keir Starmer confirmed prior to the election that Labour would respect the Conservative government’s decision to approve the fields, and would uphold existing oil and gas licences, whilst banning any new ones.
Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said the fact the UK Government has now chosen not to fight the legal cases means it was “wrong to issue the licences and underlines why they must be revoked for good”.
Harvie said: “This is an important decision by the UK Government, but the fact that this is a response to legal action by campaigners demonstrates yet again the need for a strong Green movement to challenge both the fossil fuel industry and its apologists in government.
“We are in a climate emergency, and nothing could be more damaging than offering up even more of our North Sea to oil and gas giants.
“Rosebank and Jackdaw would be catastrophic for our climate. They would pollute our planet and do nothing to lower the punishing bills that are inflicting so much misery on households and families across the country.
“We need a fundamental shift in our climate and energy policy if we are to ensure a liveable future for generations to come.
“If we are to have a cleaner and greener future then the UK Government must ensure this is the end of the road for Rosebank and Jackdaw.”
Rosebank could produce 69,000 barrels (9000 tonnes) of oil per day, about 8% of the UK’s projected daily output between 2026 and 2030, and could also produce 44 million cubic feet of gas every day, according to its owners Ithaca Energy and Equinor.
Jackdaw is owned by Shell, which said peak production was estimated at 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
The energy firms could still challenge the judicial reviews. If the reviews back the environmental groups who brought the case, the operators would need to resubmit environmental assessments.
It comes after a Supreme Court ruling that said the emissions from extracted oil and gas must be considered against legal obligations, not only the emissions generated in the act of drilling.
