British ministers to restart the approval process for two oil fields from the North Sea | Oil

The ministers will restart the approval process of two controversial oil fields Thursday, even if the new figures show that the United Kingdom will depend almost entirely on foreign gas by 2050, that they are approved.

Michael Shanks, the Minister of Energy Security, will announce the results of a government consultation on the giant field of rose benches and the smallest in Packdaw on Thursday, in a decision that says industry will set the tone in the future of production in the North Sea.

The announcement comes while new figures from the climate group uprising suggest that Great Britain will depend almost entirely on foreign gas by 2050, even if the fields receive the green light.

A source from the petroleum and gas industry said: “This consultation does not concern decisions on specific projects, but it is a question of how and if we, as an industrial, can continue to produce oil and gas in the United Kingdom.”

Tessa Khan, the executive director of Uplift, said: “This Labor government must do the right thing and resist oil and gas companies that are obscurely rich while millions of people in the United Kingdom have experienced difficulties, and stop their endless pollution. All eyes are now on the government to see if these tips provide a credible climate test. ”

Government sources have said that they expected the response to the consultation to be relatively technical and does not give an indication as to whether the Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, intends to approve the programs if their developers make a consent request.

However, industry sources say they carefully watch that the government says how much miliband will have energy about the decision, if it distinguishes oil and gas production and the attenuations it suggests that companies could set up.

The consultation was launched after a judge ruled that the authorizations granted to Equinor, the main developer of Rosebank, and Shell, who is in charge of Midaw, was illegal because they did not take into account the entire scope of the carbon emissions they would produce. The judge ruled that requests should have explained carbon produced by burning oil and gas produced in the fields, not only that produced by drilling.

The oil and gas industry maintains that the decision was unfair because it cannot reduce their emissions in the same way as car manufacturers, which can do so by making their vehicles more effective. Companies also argue that Gas will continue to be part of the British energy mixture for the decades to come, regardless of the quantity produced in the United Kingdom.

In his submission to the government before the consultation, Offshore Energies UK, which represents the oil and gas companies of the North Sea, said that the current project of directives did not take into account the “relatively unusual nature of petroleum and gas projects”.

If Equinor and Shell make a new request, Miliband may have to play a quasi-judicial role to decide to grant authorization to start drilling. The Labor Manifesto excludes the granting of new licenses for new areas, but the ministers say that this does not apply to Rosebank and Jackdaw, who already have their licenses and are now waiting for environmental consent to start drilling.

Government sources say that the treasure grows hard to allow new developments because it concentrates government economic policy on growth. But many labor deputies want Miliband to exclude them if there is a risk, they could lead the United Kingdom to break its climate commitments.

The work is under pressure from the preservatives and the reform to completely lower its net target. Miliband said this week that he and other Green Energy lovers “would win” [the] Fight ”against climate skeptics.

The consultation comes while the new increase in the increase shows that the dependence on the import of gas from the United Kingdom will drop from 55% today to 68% in 2030, 85% in 2040 and 94% in 2050, even if new oil fields receive green light. Indeed, the United Kingdom has already burned most of the gas in the declining basin.