“Incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham is set to announce new drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea within days of taking office as part of a policy blitz,” reported City AM today.

Burnham’s team has asked the civil service to draw up plans to approve drilling projects at the Jackdaw gasfield and Rosebank oilfield off the coast of Scotland, alongside an expansion of drilling near existing fields, Bloomberg reported.

If this is part of an economic growth plan, industry reports suggest the move will have minimal benefit. “More people can fit on to the top deck of a standard London bus than will be directly employed on the new Jackdaw gasfield in the North Sea,” the Guardian reported.

“Only 27 direct full-time jobs would be created by Jackdaw, one of the biggest gasfields remaining in the North Sea, according to an environmental impact assessment filed publicly by its owner, Adura, a joint venture between Shell and Norway’s Equinor.”

Simon Francis, Coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: “If Andy Burnham’s first act as Prime Minister is to bow to Donald Trump’s fossil fuel agenda, he will be making a long term blunder.

“Instead, the Government should show the world that expanding renewable energy, getting us off volatile gas for good and upgrading homes is the fastest, cheapest route to lower bills and lasting energy security.

“The new Prime Minister must show that he won’t be pushed around by profiteers with a vested interest in preserving the status quo. That means help for households now and standing firm on an energy plan that helps people switch to clean heating and cooling sources and reforms electricity pricing so everyone can benefit from permanently lower energy bills.”

Robert Palmer, deputy director of Uplift said:“Andy Burnham is right that Britain needs a different path from the one we’ve been on for decades.

“Nowhere is that clearer than our broken energy system. We’re trapped in a model where oil and gas companies make billions while families struggle with energy bills and the economy takes a hit every time global oil prices spike.

“Approving new drilling, such as the Rosebank oil field, would lock us into an unfair, expensive energy system for longer than necessary. It would also signal that the UK is prepared to miss one of the biggest economic opportunities of this century: the transition to clean power.

“If Burnham is serious about standing up for workers, he should back the existing plans to reindustrialise communities that depend on oil and gas, creating good jobs in industries like wind manufacturing and supporting workers to make the transition.

“The North Sea is now an ultra-mature basin. New oil fields won’t reverse the decline in jobs, which have more than halved over the past decade despite hundreds of new licences and new developments.

“Places like North East Scotland need a Labour government with the ambition and courage to  set us on a new path to reindustrialisation – and a Prime Minister  that listens to workers and communities, not oil lobbyists determined to protect their profits.”

Responding to the report, Amy Cameron, Greenpeace’s programme director, said: “This would be a massive own goal for Andy Burnham. Our country is literally on fire. The idea that now is the right time to cave into the demands of billionaire fossil fuel companies and Donald Trump is deluded – not to mention deeply irresponsible.”

The Stop Rosebank campaign described the report as a “massive red alert.” They have called an emergency protest in London for tomorrow, Saturday 18th July at  11:00 at the Sir Winston Churchill statue, Parliament Square, London, SW1P 3JX GB. More information here.

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:North_Sea_oil_rig.jpg Source: North Sea Oil Rig. Author: Gary Bembridge from London, UK, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.