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The UK government is soon to make a decision to approve or reject the biggest undeveloped oil field in the UK, Rosebank.
Rosebank would produce more CO2 than the 73 lowest-emitting countries do in a year. Rosebank would bust UK climate goals and is not compatible with a safe climate. Experts are clear: we already have enough oil and gas fields in production to meet our energy demands.
The crisis in the Middle East is a startling wake up call that continuing to rely on fossil fuels leaves us vulnerable to the whims of volatile leaders. Rosebank is 90% oil, which is overwhelmingly for export. It will do nothing to strengthen the UK’s energy supplies, lower our bills or save jobs. This is not an energy plan - it’s a cost of living scandal and a handout to big polluters.
Rosebank could result in a net loss of over hundreds of millions to the UK Treasury, thanks to the billions in generous tax breaks its owners would get from its development.
Rosebank could send more than £200 million to one of Israel’s biggest oil companies, which operates in illegal settlements in the West Bank and supplies fuel to the Israeli military.
Rosebank's pipeline would cut through a Marine Protected Area and directly threatens protected marine life.
People want change: not the same rip-off energy system where oil giants walk off with massive profits while we’re left with higher bills, declining jobs and a worsening climate crisis.
We have an abundance of renewable energy in the UK. This is how we build a resilient system that doesn’t hand control to greedy oil companies, but keeps the lights on with reliable power made right here in the UK.
Rosebank is a disaster that we can still stop, but the oil industry will stop at nothing to get it over the line. What happens in the coming weeks could decide whether the government listens to the public and stops Rosebank - or listens to the oil lobby and drag us backward into more dirty expensive fossil fuels.
Rosebank has drawn widespread public opposition including over 1 million people, 700 scientists and experts, 200 organisations and celebrities, trade unionists, 400 faith leaders, MPs from every major political party, and 40 MEPs. </aside>

🛢️ About

Located off the coast of Shetland, Rosebank is the biggest undeveloped oil field in the UK. Rosebank is huge. It is nearly 3x the size of Cambo - the oil field that we successfully stopped in 2021. 90% of Rosebank’s reserves are oil, which like 80% of North Sea oil, is likely to be exported. In 2023 the Conservative government approved Equinor and Ithaca's application to start developing Rosebank.
Who profits? Norwegian state-owned oil giant and Britain’s biggest gas supplier, Equinor, owns 80% of Rosebank. 20% is owned by Ithaca Energy, which also owns the Cambo oil field.
- More on Equinor and Ithaca
Who pays? Equinor and Ithaca will effectively pass the majority of the cost of developing Rosebank to the UK public, while they take the profits. The UK public would hand over BILLIONS in tax breaks to Rosebank’s owners just to develop the field. The cost of the climate crisis will be paid most by those who have contributed the least to climate change (people of colour and working class people, especially in the Global South).
More details on the Rosebank oil field

⚠️The problem

Rosebank is a huge climate issue. Scientists have warned time and time again: that we already have enough fields in production to meet our energy needs - but burning it all would blow past 'safe' climate limits of 1.5C. Developing new oil and gas fields, like Rosebank, would bust UK climate goals and push us closer to more parts of our world becoming uninhabitable. Rosebank would produce more CO2 than the 73 lowest-emitting countries do in a year.
- More
Rosebank is a bad deal for the UK. New oil and gas projects like Rosebank won’t lower our energy bills, or make our energy supply more reliable.
- UK energy prices aren't set by how much oil and gas we extract here. They are tied to gas prices set on an unpredictable global market that swings wildly with global supply, demand, and geopolitical crises - which is why we've seen our bills skyrocket.
- Rosebank’s oil is overwhelmingly for export and will do nothing to strengthen the UK’s energy supplies or resilience to shocks. 90% of Rosebank’s reserves are oil. Like 80% of all North Sea oil, the majority of Rosebank’s oil is expected to be put in tankers and exported for refining overseas, with only some sold back to the UK at market price. Its minimal gas reserves have the potential to reduce UK annual gas import dependency by just 1% on average.
- Yet thanks to an incredibly generous tax system, the UK public would shoulder over 80% of the costs - and the vast majority of risk - from developing Rosebank. This could result in a net loss of hundreds of millions of pounds to the UK Treasury, while the field’s owners Equinor and Ithaca would earn billions in profit.
- More
Rosebank is a human rights issue. Some of Rosebank’s vast oil profits could flow to a company that operates in illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine. The oil company behind Rosebank and Cambo, ****Ithaca Energy, is majority-owned by the Delek Group, which operates in Occupied Palestinian Territory. The Delek Group is expected to receive more than £200 million in revenue from Rosebank. Delek has been included by the UN in a list of businesses whose activities in the West Bank have “raised particular human rights concerns”. Delek also has provided fuel to the Israel Military via its subsidiary, Delek Israel, with military personnel able to refuel at hundreds of petrol stations owned by Delek Israel.
- More
Rosebank won’t save workers. It will do little to stem the decline in the North Sea workforce, which has seen jobs supported by the industry more than halve in the past decade, despite new field approvals. Rosebank is expected to support ‘an average of approximately 525 UK-based jobs throughout the lifetime of the field’, according to Equinor. Continuing to focus on new drilling over renewables distracts from the urgent work needed to create good, clean energy jobs to replace those being lost in oil and gas, as the North Sea declines.
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Rosebank is a huge environmental issue. Rosebank is right next to a Marine Protected Area and threatens the endangered species that call it home. A major oil spill from Rosebank would have catastrophic impacts - it could reach not just the shores around Scotland and Norway but as far as the coasts of Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands. Loud drilling, seismic blasting and construction at Rosebank would disturb dolphins, whales and fish - potentially disrupting their behaviour and migration, and even causing deaths. The pipeline needed to transport its tiny amount of gas reserves would cut through a specially protected seabed - the Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt. It could harm this delicate ecosystem and the extraordinary creatures like sensitive deep sea sponges and clams that can live for over 500 years - some of the oldest animals on the planet.
- More

⌛ Why now?

Oil giant Equinor has resubmitted a new application for the Rosebank oil field. That means one thing: the UK government will make a new decision on whether to reject or approve Rosebank – and it could be very soon. What happens in the coming weeks could decide whether the government listens to the public and stops the biggest undeveloped oil field in the UK - or listens to the oil lobby of Rosebank owners Equinor and Ithaca, and drag us backward into more dirty expensive fossil fuels.
The final decision is getting closer and it’s time to ramp up the heat to make sure that we #StopRosebank for good. This is the moment to crank up the pressure and we’ve got plans to do exactly that. From mass mobilisations to digital actions, the next phase of the fight is here, and it’s going to be big. Keep your eyes out over the coming weeks on how to join.
This government cannot claim to care about climate change and approve Rosebank – the maths don’t add up. Whether or not this government follows the science and rejects Rosebank will be a real test of its climate credibility.
Stopping Rosebank would set a powerful precedent and help us bring an end to all new oil and gas. We can win the public argument on the need for a rapid energy transition in line with climate science.