Displaying items by tag: oil and gas

The global oil and gas industry faces a critical juncture at the upcoming UN climate talks (COP28), according to Dr Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA). She emphasised that the sector must make a pivotal choice between exacerbating the climate crisis or actively contributing to its resolution. Last year, fossil fuel companies allocated a mere 1% of global investment to renewable energy. At COP28, the IEA intends to exert pressure on participating governments to agree on measures for reducing fossil fuel usage. Dr Birol stressed that a successful transition to clean energy necessitates reduced demand for oil and gas, requiring the scaling back of fossil fuel operations. Meeting climate goals involves embracing carbon capture technology while simultaneously reducing emissions, but currently carbon capture capacity worldwide is insufficient to meet these objectives. The fossil fuel industry, although a major investor in carbon capture and storage, is being strongly criticised for its inadequate investment in renewable energy.

The UK's largest untapped oil field has been approved for development by regulators. It is estimated that Rosebank, 80 miles west of Shetland, could produce 300 million barrels of oil - but opponents say those could account for 200 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. The lead company Equinor puts the capacity at about 70,000 barrels per day, which the BBC calculates would be about 10% of the UK’s current daily production. At that rate it would take about twelve years to extract the recoverable oil, although other groups have made higher estimates of the amount that could be found. The Government has welcomed the decision, saying it will raise billions of pounds and ‘make us more secure against tyrants like Putin’. Rishi Sunak said, ‘As we make the transition to renewables, we will still need oil and gas: it makes sense to use our own’. But Scotland's first minister Humza Yousaf said he was ‘disappointed’, while the Green Party called the decision ‘morally obscene’.