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Musicians urge UK PM to reject Rosebank and Jackdaw drilling plans
The UK government’s consultations for the Rosebank oilfield and the Jackdaw gasfield have closed, with ministers now deciding their futures.
More than 200 musicians, including Massive Attack, Brian Eno, and singer Olly Alexander, have written to UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham urging him to reject plans for additional oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, focusing on the Rosebank oilfield and the Jackdaw gasfield.
According to the letter cited by Guardian Business, the signatories argue that exploiting Rosebank will not lower energy bills or improve energy security because most of the oil is likely to be exported. The artists also warn that the project will fail to address the wider climate impacts.
The government consultation on Rosebank, located about 80 miles northwest of the Shetland Islands, closed on Monday. Ministers are now set to decide on the project’s future as well as Jackdaw’s, after its consultation ended a week earlier off Aberdeen.
The outlet reports that Adura, the company behind both projects, says they would drive £10.8bn in investment and support 3,500 jobs at peak construction, with 880 employees over the production lifetime. Environmental groups counter that extracting fossil fuels from Rosebank, described as the UK’s largest remaining untapped oilfield, would accelerate climate change, with estimates suggesting it could produce more than 250m tonnes of CO2 over its lifetime.