Oilfield protesters plan day of action

Campaigners challenging the Rosebank oil field development are planning a day of action in Aberdeen, Shetland and in front of bosses in Norway.

The protest is timed to target developers Equinor, which holds its annual general meeting today.

Stop Rosebank campaigner Lauren MacDonald says she hopes to challenge shareholders directly.

“We are at that point where it has to stop,” she said.

“Temperatures around the world are off the charts, including in our oceans, climate scientists are terrified and conditions are rapidly becoming unliveable for millions of people.”

She wants the plug pulled on Rosebank, which was controversially given the go-ahead off the coast of Shetland, and she wants Equinor to stop a policy of oil and gas expansion.

Equinor is majority owned by the Norwegian state.

A shareholder proposal being targeted in the city of Stavanger calls on the firm to follow the Paris Climate Agreement and make sure 50% of its board have “strong sustainability credentials”.

Campaigners will also travel for planned protests outside offices in Aberdeen, the Norwegian Embassy in London, Shetland and Cambridge.

Andrea Sanchez, campaigner at Stop Rosebank Shetland, said: “Areas like Shetland are particularly vulnerable to the transition away from oil and gas, but we cannot continue like this. Opening new oil fields will not solve this problem.”

Equinor says it aims to be a “net-zero emissions company by 2050 by achieving “new solutions” in renewables, low carbon and oil and gas.

The Rosebank plan, while opposed by Green groups, is welcomed by supporters who see jobs being created in the north-east.

Last month, Aberdeen firm Balmoral Comtec said it is taking on 50 extra workers to support a new multi-million-pound contract for work on the development.

The engineering company will design and manufacture more than 600 buoyancy modules for services contractor TechnipFMC.

Rosebank, situated about 80 miles north-west of Shetland, is the UK’s largest undeveloped oil discovery field.

Equinor won approval last September for its plans to extract 300 million barrels of oil equivalent from the site.

Climate change activists are challenging the UK Government’s decision in the courts.

Equinor has been contacted for comment.

Areas like Shetland are particularly vulnerable to the transition away from oil and gas

UNITED: Rosebank oil and gas field protesters during a march to the Norwegian Embassy in London last year.