Aberdeen MP urges Energy Secretary to approve Rosebank oil field

Aberdeen South MP Douglas Lumsden has urged the Energy Secretary to approve the Rosebank oil field after Jackdaw was given the green light.

Miatta Fahnbulleh announced on Wednesday that the gas field, set around 150 miles east of Aberdeen, had been approved following years of uncertainty and a court case.

But reports suggest the Rosebank oil field, which has often been clubbed together with Jackdaw, could be rejected.

Oil produced from development near Shetland will be sold on the open market, while the gas produced off the Aberdeen coast will be used to meet domestic demand.

In a letter to Ms Fahnbulleh, Aberdeen South MP Douglas Lumsden said: “I am deeply concerned by reports that you are considering rejecting the Rosebank oilfield.

“I urge you to approve the project and provide the certainty that workers and businesses across the North East need.

“The city of Aberdeen and my constituents in Aberdeen South depend on the continued extraction and exploration of oil and gas fields.

“Rosebank is set to support 1,600 to 2,000 jobs during peak construction and provide up to 525 long-term, UK-based jobs.

“There are simply not enough jobs in the renewable sector to replace the jobs in the oil and gas sector.

“I simply do not understand why this Government fails to understand this. To deny this project would be to unnecessarily condemn the prospects of many of my constituents.

“It is cruel, unnecessary and uneconomic.”

The Energy Secretary announced the approval of Jackdaw on Wednesday (Paul Reid/PA)

PA Wire

He added: “If the Prime Minister wants to see growth in every postcode, then he must approve Rosebank, scrap the Energy Profits Levy, and remove Labour’s ban on all new licences for the people and businesses of Aberdeen South.”

The call comes after the SNP criticised the creation of an “energy wealth fund” on Wednesday, which – with a starting balance of £2 billion – will be bolstered by North Sea revenues and reinvested in renewables projects.

The party’s Westminster leader Dave Doogan said the fund should have been created decades ago.

“Scotland should have an oil fund worth at least £1 trillion, but instead Westminster tried to pull the wool over the eyes of the Scottish people,” he said.

“This week has cemented an injustice in the minds of Scots – it is Scotland’s energy and it should be in Scotland’s hands.

“Our vast resources should, and we now know can, be made to benefit our people. Our energy wealth has been hidden from us, but Scotland won’t get fooled again.

“All this talk of a new Energy Wealth Fund is meaningless unless every single penny invested in it from Scotland’s waters is reinvested back into our nation.

“This goes to the very heart of why independence is now the preferred choice of the Scottish people – every pound of revenue will be used to benefit our people as we build Scotland anew back home in the EU.”