For a liveable planet, we cannot allow any new oil, gas and coal projects.

Cambo is a new oil field that’s planned in the West of Shetland basin in the North Atlantic. In the first phase of the project, the field’s owners – the oil giant Shell and a private equity-backed firm called Siccar Point Energy – propose extracting 170 million barrels of oil. This has a climate footprint equivalent to running 18 coal-fired power stations for a year. Fully developed, the Cambo field is forecast to extract 288 million barrels of oil. This is a big field.

Source: The Herald

The crude oil in the Cambo reservoir is a heavy grade, which means it has a higher emissions intensity (it has triple the average emissions intensity of oil produced in Norway). Not only is Cambo a big field, then, it contains particularly polluting oil.

The tax we’ll get from Cambo is likely to be negligible or even negative (i.e. we could end up paying the oil companies). The UK has an incredibly generous tax system for the oil and gas industry. We provide hundreds of millions of pounds of public funding to oil and gas companies each year, yet receive far less in taxes than our neighbours. In Norway, the government receives about $21 in tax per barrel of oil. In the UK, we receive less than $2.

It gets worse. Since 2015 – when the UK pledged to tackle climate change by signing the Paris Agreement – the UK government has paid oil and gas producers £3.2 billion to keep drilling for oil and gas. On top of that, the UK public is currently on the hook for roughly £18 billion in decommissioning costs (that’s money to clean up the rigs, pipes and infrastructure left in the sea after the oil has run dry). All of this has made the UK the most profitable country in the world for oil and gas producers.

At the same time, the industry has paid less and less in taxes to the UK government each year. In 2015 and 2016, they actually paid negative tax, meaning we paid them rather than the other way around. Some companies, like Shell, have received millions of pounds in state backing: in 2020 Shell picked up almost £100m from the UK government. The UK was the only country where Shell operated in 2020 that it didn’t pay any tax.

Cambo’s operators appear set to take advantage of this generous tax system. When Blackstone and Blue Water Energy (the private equity backers behind Siccar Point Energy) unsuccessfully tried to sell Siccar Point’s assets in the North Sea in 2019, they boasted that future buyers would be sheltered from tax payments until the late-2020s due to large transferable tax losses.

Developing the Cambo project will also add to the public bill for decommissioning through the form of additional tax relief. It also puts the UK public at greater risk of having to clean up after the oil companies. The risks associated with the project are huge. Cambo is technically very complex and more costly than most fields due to its significant depth, the geology of the surrounding rock, and harsh Atlantic conditions in the West of Shetland basin. Already, uncertainties surrounding the financial viability of the project led to it being postponed last year. Other projects in the West of Shetland have suffered delays and cost overruns, which have severely impacted the share price of producers involved. This carries a risk for the taxpayer, with the government liable to provide additional tax relief to cover decommissioning costs if a company defaults. Again, Shell and Siccar Point Energy look to profit, while the public are set to shoulder the risk.

Why #StopCambo?

For a liveable planet, we can't allow any new oil, gas and coal projects

170 million barrels of oil = emissions equivalent to running 18 coal-fired power stations for a year

Cambo’s owners – oil giant Shell and Siccar Point Energy – had planned to extract up to 170 million barrels of oil in the first phase alone. This would have generated emissions equivalent to the annual carbon pollution from 18 coal-fired power stations.

The issue of the Cambo oil field overshadowed the UK’s role in hosting last year's COP 26 climate talks in Glasgow.

"If governments are serious about the climate crisis, there can be no new investments in oil, gas and coal, from now – from this year."

If we want a liveable climate – meaning temperatures rise no more than 1.5°C – there can be no new investment in oil, gas or coal. A safe climate means no Cambo.

Boris Johnson must permanently reject Cambo and the other North Sea fields, and support a transition to clean energy that is fair to oil and gas workers and their communities.

Contrary to what you might have heard, Cambo will bring few UK jobs, little tax benefit (as well as a potentially huge clean up bill) and most of its oil will be exported.

A reason for hope

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