Tag: Shell

Equinor banks on £3.75 BILLION tax break while posting ‘outrageous’ profits

“The world is burning and the UK Government is helping the arsonists pay for the fuel”

Climate campaigners have reacted with outrage at the news that Norwegian oil giant Equinor has today announced pre-tax profits of £5.8 billion (US$7.5 billion) in JST THE LAST THREE MONTHS.

Campaigners said that with climate-induced fires sweeping Greece “the UK Government is helping the arsonists pay for the fuel” with a massive tax break for Equinor to develop a new oil field.

Equinor’s flagship project in the UK, the controversial Rosebank oil field, is in line to pocket a tax break of £3.75 billion from the UK Government to incentivise its development. This deliberate loophole in the Windfall Tax means that 91% of the cost of developing the 500 million barrel field will be covered by the public purse, despite Equinor’s massive profits and the fact that 80% of Rosebank’s oil will be exported.

Campaigners in Aberdeen yesterday delivered a giant ‘cheque’ to the Equinor offices to highlight the injustice of the tax break.

Last year, Equinor broke records with pre-tax yearly profits of £62 billion (US$74.9billion), benefiting from increased prices for oil and gas due to the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, energy bills for consumers skyrocketed and millions were pushed into fuel poverty.

There has been widespread opposition to the Rosebank field, with public protests across the UK, politicians including SNP MPs Tommy Sheppard and Mhairi Black and the head of the UK Government’s own climate advisory committee, Lord Deben, speaking out against the project.

A decision on Rosebank is rumoured to be scheduled for after the summer recess, following delays due to concerns that the project would not meet net zero commitments under the North Sea Transition Deal.

Friends of the Earth Scotland’s oil and gas campaigner Freya Aitchison said: “These outrageous profits every quarter serve as a stark reminder that companies like Equinor have no intention of changing their ways.

“Fossil fuel giants are simply making too much money from upholding the climate-destroying status quo. Adding insult to injury is the massive tax break Equinor will receive should they go ahead with Rosebank, showing how the UK Government would rather hand out public money than say no to big polluters.

“Grant Shapps and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero are blatantly ignoring the devastating impacts of climate breakdown, exemplified most recently in the terrifying wildfires in Greece.

“By cheerfully inviting oil companies to drill for yet more polluting fossil fuels, they are effectively denying the reality of the climate crisis. The world is burning and the UK Government is helping the arsonists pay for the fuel.

“The Scottish Government can no longer sit on the fence on this climate denial and must speak out against Rosebank and all other new fossil fuel projects. We need a just transition to clean, affordable energy now.”

BREAKING NEWS: British Gas parent company Centrica has just posted it’s highest ever profits – £969 million in first six months of this year. Shell, too, has just posted eye-watering profits.

No cost of living crisis for these companies …

‘Obscene’ Shell profit shows urgent need to get off fossil fuels

Climate campaigners have reacted to the announcement of Shell’s 2022 profits of £32.2billion ($39.9b), saying the figures show that our harmful energy system must urgently be transformed away from fossil fuels.

Climate science is clear that we urgently need to transition away from our broken fossil fuel energy system in order to secure a liveable future. Analysis has shown that renewable energy is 9 times cheaper than new fossil fuel energy.

A Channel 4 investigation in August 2022 shows Shell invested equivalent of just 6.3% of its £17.1bn profits into low carbon energy, investing nearly three times more in oil and gas.

Independent climate advisors have said that increasing UK supply of oil and gas will have almost no impact on UK bills as prices are set by the international market. However, continued reliance on volatile fossil fuels will leave millions vulnerable to spikes in their prices.

Friends of the Earth Scotland’s oil and gas campaigner Freya Aitchison said: “The announcement of yet another obscene profit for Shell shows the scale of the harm that these companies are inflicting on households and businesses.

“Oil company bosses and shareholders are being allowed to get even richer by banking huge profits, while normal people are facing enormous energy bills and millions are being forced into fuel poverty.

“Shell is worsening climate breakdown and extreme weather by continuing to invest and lock us into new oil and gas projects for decades to come. Their Jackdaw project was given the green light by the UK Government in 2022 and we know they only invest a small fraction of their profits into renewable energy.

“These profit figures are further evidence that our current fossil fuelled energy system is seriously harming people and the climate. Despite this, the Scottish Government’s recent draft Energy Strategy contains very few new steps to tackle the climate crisis or the immediate impacts of the cost of energy crisis.

“Ministers should instead chart a clear path away from fossil fuels and towards an energy system that is built on clean, reliable renewables. They must listen to the science which tells us that to meet climate targets in a fair way, fossil fuel extraction needs to be phased out in the next decade.”

Shell profits ‘show scale of the pain’ of cost of living crisis

Environmental campaigners have reacted to the announcement that oil giant Shell has made £8.19bn ($9.5 Billion) in profits in the third quarter of this year.

Campaigners say that the forthcoming Scottish Energy Strategy is a chance for Scotland to ‘chart a clear path’ away from the oil and gas companies who are harming people and the planet to instead create an energy system that runs on renewable energy.

Climate science is clear that we urgently need to transition away from our broken fossil fuel energy system in order to stay within safe climate limits. Analysis has shown that renewable energy is 9 times cheaper than new fossil fuel energy.

Independent climate advisors have made it clear that increasing UK supply of oil and gas will have almost no impact on UK bills as prices are set by the international market. However, continued reliance on volatile fossil fuels will leave millions vulnerable to spikes in their prices.

Shell’s profits for the previous 3 months of 2022 (Q2) were £9.5billion ($11.5billion).

Friends of the Earth Scotland’s Oil and Gas campaigner Freya Aitchison said: “The announcement of yet another obscene profit for Shell shows the scale of the pain that these companies are inflicting on the public.

“While oil companies continue to make record breaking profits, ordinary people are facing skyrocketing energy bills and millions are being pushed into fuel poverty.

“Bosses and shareholders at Shell are being allowed to get even richer by exploiting one of our most basic needs. Shell is also worsening climate breakdown and extreme weather by continuing to invest and lock us into new oil and gas projects for decades to come.

“The Scottish Government must use the opportunity of its forthcoming Energy Strategy to chart a clear path away from fossil fuels and towards an energy system that is built on clean, reliable renewables.

“They must listen to the science which tells us that to meet climate targets in a fair way, fossil fuel extraction needs to be phased out in the next decade.”

Campaigners slam approval of new gas field

UK GOVERNMENT ‘POURING FUEL ON THE FIRE’ AS JACKDAW FIELD APPROVED

Environmental campaigners have slammed the UK Government’s approval of Shell’s plans to develop the Jackdaw gas field as ignoring climate science and entrenching reliance on gas despite the energy price crisis and need to move away from fossil fuels.

The proposal for the Jackdaw field, which holds gas with an unusually high CO2 content, was previously rejected by the environmental regulator on climate grounds, however Shell resubmitted the application earlier this year with only minimal changes.

In 2020, the International Energy Agency said that there should be “no new oil and gas fields approved for development” anywhere in the world to keep within the 1.5C limit of dangerous climate warming. UCL research found that new oil and gas licences were incompatible with the UK’s international climate commitments, while peer-reviewed analysis by Oil Change International has found that 40% of existing developed reserves of fossil fuels cannot be extracted to have a 50% chance of staying within 1.5C.

Activists organised a protest outside the UK Government building in Edinburgh yesterday to demand the UK Government reverses its decision to approve Shell’s Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea. Over 3,600 people signed a petition by Friends of the Earth Scotland, Greenpeace and Uplift opposing the field.

Mary Church, head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “The decision to approve the Jackdaw gas field exposes Boris Johnson’s climate leadership rhetoric at COP26 last year as pure greenwash. The UK Government is pouring fuel on the fire of the social and climate crises by deepening our reliance on fossil fuels.

“Approving the Jackdaw field will do nothing to help people who face higher bills in the UK or to tackle the climate crisis. The only people who benefit are executives and shareholders at Shell who are hellbent on destroying the planet for their own profit.

“The UK Government must reverse this approval, stop issuing any new fossil fuel licences and start planning for a managed phase-out of production, with a just transition for workers and communities. It must also do much more to alleviate the suffering of households as the energy price crisis bites, and urgently ramp up retrofits to keep homes warm while helping end reliance on expensive gas.”

Maciej Walczuk, an activist with Stop Jackdaw, said: “The UK Government is using people’s rising bills as an excuse to allow Shell to continue profiteering from the climate crisis.

“We need investments into insulation and a planned transition away from fossil fuels to tackle the climate crisis, not to increase our dependence on them.”

The crucial 1.5C climate limit was enshrined in the Paris Agreement. A growing consensus is emerging on the future of fossil fuels, with the UN General Secretary describing their expansion as ‘economic and moral madness’ and the IEA and UKCCC calling for production to be limited.

Inverleith Green councillor Julie Bandel attended the rally. She tweeted: “Quick lunchtime rally to protest the absolute madness that is approving a new oil field in the middle of a climate crisis and giving Shell a tax rebate for it.

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“Scotland desperately needs a just transition to protect livelihoods and the planet.”

#StopJackdaw

Mossmorran: regulator demands speedier improvements

  •  ExxonMobil Chemical Limited and Shell U.K. Limited are not currently using all Best Available Techniques for flaring.
  • ExxonMobil Chemical Limited proposed timescales to increase capacity and accessibility to ground flares unacceptable.
  • Shell U.K. Limited has not sufficiently demonstrated that proposed principles, approach and level of upgrade to the plant would achieve BAT and are therefore unacceptable.
  • SEPA will move within seven days to vary operating permits to include required timescales for the implementation of BAT, and the provision of further detail required.
  • SEPA’s complex regulatory investigation to an evidential standard involving specialist technical, regulatory and enforcement officers will conclude by end November 2019, subject to no new lines of enquiry being uncovered during this phase.
  • SEPA confirmed on Thursday that it will fully investigate the current incident.

Continue reading Mossmorran: regulator demands speedier improvements