Writing in The Times, AGCC Policy Director Ryan Crighton has outlined the case for Cambo and other new North Sea fields to go ahead.
You can read the column here.
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What has five letters, two syllables, and makes a big noise?
Cambo, the little oil field off Shetland which is at the centre of an almighty rammy.
I say little because it sits around 80th on the list of the UK’s largest developments, and there are the two fields planned internationally that are 40 to 50 times bigger.
However, despite its size, this project has somehow become a lightning rod in the debate about the future of oil and gas in our energy mix. And while it is hard to see another point of view when you are glued to a pavement, I am going offer one to its opponents anyway.
Fields like Cambo are not increasing UK production, they are offsetting decades of decline, and doing so with platforms that are more efficient.
Production in the North Sea has been falling for over 20 years, and we have gone from producing more energy than we need, to importing it from other countries like the US and Qatar. For clarity, that means extracting hydrocarbons on the other side of the world and shipping it here on tankers.
There have been times in the past few years where we have been importing as much oil and gas as we did in the 1970s. This has left us exposed to global forces, and that is a dangerous position to be in right now. This is why we have been calling for a more reasoned debate on the subject.
There is no current projection out to 2050 that doesn’t have oil and gas in it. So that leaves us with two choices; to produce more domestically, with full control over the regulatory environment in which it is extracted; or to import more energy from overseas, without the tax revenues and jobs that the North Sea gives us.
The latter makes little economic sense, and even less environmental sense.
For that reason, the argument against Cambo is naïve to both Britain’s energy mix and future energy needs.
Let’s not lose sight of the fact that the energy transition is going to take 25 years. Now, at this crucial point in the journey, is not the time to be ideological, it is the time to be pragmatic.
We all want to get to the same net zero destination, there is no one in denial about the direction of travel. All that needs to be agreed upon is the steps we take to get there and, crucially, the order in which we take them. Be in no doubt that oil and gas must, in the short-to-medium term, be part of that mix.
Ryan Crighton is Policy Director at Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce