Authorities are weighing up proposals for oil and gas drilling from the Cambo oil field, in the North Atlantic just west of the Shetland Islands. The oil field is owned by Shell and private equity firm Siccar Point Energy.
Licensing for fossil fuel exploration at Cambo was initially approved in 2001. If the project receives the full go-ahead, a further 150-170 million barrels of oil may be extracted from the site - the equivalent of running a coal-fired power station for more than 16 years. The site is expected to operate from 2022 until 2050.
The decision is nominally in the hands of the Oil and Gas Authority and Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning, although government ministers are under pressure to intervene. While the government has recently introduced a climate compatibility test for new oil and gas developments, these will not be applied to fields like Cambo which have already been licensed.
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