Category Archives: Oil

Government announces nuclear taskforce as row grows over North Sea oil – UK politics live

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Taskforce aims to ‘fuel growth in nuclear industry’ as dismay grows over Rishi Sunak’s plans to authorise more licences for North Sea drilling

The average number of migrants crossing the Channel per boat last month was the highest on record, figures show.

Some 3,299 people made the journey in July in 63 boats – an average of about 52 per vessel. This is the highest average since records began in 2018, according to PA news agency analysis of government data.

Bad news for fans of unelected legislatures: Labour is considering abolishing hereditary peers. According to the Sunday Times, Keir Starmer is drawing up plans that could see the immediate removal of hereditary peers if the party is elected, as part of a package of “interim” reforms to modernise and reduce the size of the House of Lords.

Other moves being explored include introducing a mandatory retirement age or stopping hereditary peer byelections (so the current peers can’t be replaced after they leave).

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Leak reveals ‘touchy’ issues for UAE’s presidency of UN climate summit

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Exclusive: Long list of ‘sensitive’ topics for petrostate include oil and gas production, emissions and Yemen war crimes

A comprehensive list of “touchy and sensitive issues” for the United Arab Emirates, which is running the next UN climate summit, has been revealed in a document leaked to the Guardian.

The document sets out the government-approved “strategic messages” to be used in response to media requests about the issues, which range from the UAE’s increasing production of oil and gas to people trafficking.

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Shell’s ‘obscene’ $5bn profits reignite outrage amid climate crisis

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Campaigners criticise plan to increase oil and gas production despite extreme heat in Europe

Shell has reignited outrage among climate activists by handing billions to its shareholders after making profits that campaigners have described as “obscene”.

Protests were held outside the oil company’s London headquarters on Thursday after it reported second-quarter profits of just over $5bn (£3.9bn) in the same week that wildfires linked to the climate crisis burned across Mediterranean countries.

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Five arrested after climate protest at Ineos oil refinery in Scotland

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Police say alleged offences include breach of the peace after 200 people march to plant and four climb on roof

Five people have been arrested after environmental activists staged a day of resistance at the Ineos oil refinery near Falkirk.

Four people climbed on to the roof of the Ineos gas power station at Grangemouth and held up a banner on Saturday afternoon. Earlier, about 200 people marched to the fence of the Ineos plant, which powers the oil refinery, from a climate camp approximately a mile away.

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Fears for Libyan oil production amid military threats

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Gen Khalifa Haftar warned of military action unless oil revenues are divided fairly

Fears have been raised of a damaging oil shutdown in Libya with implications for global energy markets after Libya’s strongman in the east, Gen Khalifa Haftar, warned of military action unless oil revenues are divided fairly within the next two months.

With the country long divided between two governments in the east and west and little prospect of presidential elections designed to reunify the country at least until next year, politicians in the east have threatened to put oil revenues under judicial control preventing the revenue reaching the Central Bank from the National Oil Corporation (NOC), the state-run oil firm.

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New windfarm could be used to power North Sea oilfield

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Electricity generated on Shetland could be used to fuel the proposed Rosebank field, instead of homes

Electricity from a new onshore windfarm could be used to power the biggest undeveloped oilfield in the North Sea, campaigners are warning, ahead of an imminent decision over whether to approve the project.

The huge Rosebank oilfield is three times bigger than the controversial Cambo field that was put on hold more than a year ago. It has the potential to produce 500m barrels of oil and its final approval is expected to reach the energy secretary, Grant Shapps, in the next few weeks. It is expected to be approved after Rishi Sunak hinted last month that it would be “economically illiterate” not to invest in UK oil and gas because Britain will remain reliant on fossil fuels for “the next few decades”.

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C of E divests of fossil fuels as oil and gas firms ditch climate pledges

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Church pension and endowment funds shed holdings after U-turns by BP and Shell

The Church of England is divesting from fossil fuels in its multibillion pound endowment and pension funds over climate concerns and recent U-turns by oil and gas companies.

The church said it was abandoning oil and gas companies and all firms primarily engaged in the exploration, production and refining of oil or gas by the end of 2023, unless they were in genuine alignment with a 1.5C reduction pathway.

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Starmer reassures North Sea workers as Labour lays out energy and climate plan

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Speech in Scotland shows willingness to face energy dilemma head-on, but green groups say fossil fuel end date must come soon

Scotland was a brave choice as the venue for the launch of Keir Starmer’s new energy and climate policy. Back in March, Rishi Sunak was planning to hold his “energy day” in Aberdeen, the UK’s oil and gas capital, but after criticism he switched to the much safer Oxfordshire.

Starmer knows that Labour needs to win back lost seats in Scotland, so visiting the Scottish capital for an important speech was a canny move. More than that, though, taking the launch to Edinburgh showed a willingness to face head-on Labour’s energy dilemma: how to shift the UK economy to a low-carbon footing, as net zero demands, without destroying high-quality jobs in carbon-intensive industries.

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Germany coalition staves off implosion with 11th-hour heating law amendment

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Environmental groups criticise revision of law that would have banned installation of gas and oil systems

The German government has staved off a power battle that threatened to cause the ruling coalition to implode after finally agreeing an 11th-hour amendment to a controversial new heating law.

Negotiations over the legislation have dominated the headlines for weeks, with the economy minister, Robert Habeck, of the Greens clashing with the pro-liberal Free Democratic party (FDP) over how much consumers should be burdened with the costs of replacing fossil fuel heating systems with cleaner, climate-neutral energy.

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£19.3bn of fossil fuels imported by UK from authoritarian states in year since Ukraine war

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As Russian oil and gas imports fell petrostates including UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia increased exports to UK

UK fossil fuel imports from authoritarian petrostates surged to £19.3bn in the year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it can be revealed.

Efforts to end the purchasing of oil and gas from Russia appear to have resulted in a surge in imports from other authoritarian regimes, including Algeria, Bahrain, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to data from the Office for National Statistics analysed by DeSmog.

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North Sea oil and gas industry offered ‘get-out’ clause on windfall tax

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Jeremy Hunt hopes suspending tax on oil profits if Brent crude falls below $71.40 a barrel will aid investment

Jeremy Hunt has offered the North Sea oil and gas industry a ‘get-out’ clause from the windfall tax on fossil fuel profits if wholesale energy market prices fall back to normal levels.

The chancellor hopes to boost investment in the North Sea by agreeing to suspend the windfall tax on oil profits if the market price for Brent crude falls below $71.40 a barrel, and gas prices fall below 54 pence a therm, for a period of six months. The global oil price is currently about $75 a barrel, and the UK’s gas price is about 64 p/th.

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‘Absolute scandal’: UAE state oil firm able to read Cop28 climate summit emails

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Exclusive: UN conference president Sultan Al Jaber is also head of oil firm, which was consulted on how to respond to a media inquiry

The United Arab Emirates’ state oil company has been able to read emails to and from the Cop28 climate summit office and was consulted on how to respond to a media inquiry, the Guardian can reveal.

The UAE is hosting the UN climate summit in November and the president of Cop28 is Sultan Al Jaber, who is also chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc). The revelations have been called “explosive” and a “scandal” by lawmakers.

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Shell’s ‘green’ ad campaign banned in UK for being ‘likely to mislead’

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Advertising Standards Authority says ads do not make clear company’s business is mostly based on fossil fuels

An ad campaign by Shell promoting its green initiatives has been banned for not telling consumers that most of its business is based on environmentally damaging fossil fuels such as petrol.

Shell, which has set goals to become a net zero carbon energy company by 2050 while also expanding its gas business by a fifth, ran a TV, poster and YouTube campaign pushing renewable electricity, wind and car charging point initiatives.

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Keir Starmer pledges ‘good, union jobs’ amid energy row with GMB

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Labour leader to address union’s conference after its leader attacks plan to ban new North Sea oil and gas extraction

Keir Starmer will pledge to put “good, union jobs” at the heart of Labour’s energy policy during a speech to one of its biggest donor unions after its general secretary criticised a proposed ban on oil and gas expansion.

He will speak at the GMB’s annual conference on Tuesday, a day after he tried to calm a growing rift with its leadership over Labour’s energy policy.

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Brent crude price rises after Saudi Arabia agrees to cut oil output

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Price gained more than 2% on Monday morning to touch one-month high of $78.73

The price of Brent crude has risen after Saudi Arabia agreed to cut its output to firm up oil prices after a weekend of tense talks.

Saudi ministers agreed to cut 1m barrels per day (bpd) from its output from next month at a meeting of the Opec+ group of oil-producing nations in Vienna.

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Iraq’s oil boom blamed for worsening water crisis in drought-hit south

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Pollution from gas flaring – the burning of natural gas associated with oil extraction – is also a major concern in the oil-rich but extremely dry south

Western oil companies are exacerbating water shortages and causing pollution in Iraq as they race to profit from rising oil prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Water scarcity has already displaced thousands and increased instability, according to international experts, while Iraq is now considered the fifth most vulnerable country to the climate crisis by the UN. In the oil-rich but extremely dry south, wetlands that used to feed entire communities are now muddy canals.

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Austrade forum to promote links with oil giant Saudi Aramco condemned by activists

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Environmental groups say the event in Perth to court the biggest polluting oil company of all time is ‘akin to a joint trade show with a tobacco major’

A government meet-and-greet to connect Australian industry with the world’s largest oil company, Saudi Aramco, has been criticised by environmental groups as “akin to a joint trade show with a tobacco major”.

Australia’s international trade agency Austrade will host the event, “Doing business with Aramco 2023”, next Friday at the Duxton Hotel in Perth.

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University investment funds urge ‘bold action’ to stop new fossil fuel projects

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Asset managers told they have key role to play on climate crisis in open letter before Shell’s annual meeting

A coalition of university investment funds has called on institutional investors to rebel against the boards of fossil fuel companies and their backers.

As Shell prepares for its annual shareholder meeting this week, representatives from the Universities of Newcastle, Sussex, Bristol and from Trinity College, Cambridge, have written an open letter to the asset management industry urging “bold action” to stop new fossil fuel projects.

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Could Guyana’s Exxon ruling scare big oil off risky exploration?

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Ruling requiring ‘unlimited guarantee’ from oil firms to cover costs of spills could change offshore drilling throughout region

A ruling from Guyana’s high court could change the face of offshore oil drilling throughout the Caribbean, according to financial and legal analysts.

The ruling ordered the country’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to require an independent liability insurance policy from Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) and an “unlimited guarantee” from its parent company, ExxonMobil, in the case of any damage caused by the company’s oil and gas development in the country.

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Norway under pressure to scale back fossil fuel expansion plans north sea

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Campaigners say development of huge Rosebank field in North Sea would drive climate breakdown

The Norwegian government is facing growing pressure to scale back its huge global fossil fuel expansion plans – including the development of a controversial new oilfield in the North Sea.

Climate activists from around the world descended on Stavanger in Norway last week to attend the AGM of the state-owned oil and gas giant Equinor. They warned that its plans to develop the huge Rosebank field in the North Sea, as well as other mega-projects in Canada, Brazil and Suriname, would drive climate breakdown with devastating consequences for humanity.

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