A decision on the controversial Rosebank oilfield, widely expected before the summer holidays, will not come before parliament rises for recess, Sky News understands.
It comes amid concerns over the project’s compatibility with climate targets.
A verdict on plans to pump oil and gas from Rosebank – the UK’s largest untapped field, 80 miles from Shetland – had been expected imminently from the government’s North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA).
But Sky News understands there will be no public announcement on the decision before parliament goes into recess on Thursday 20 July.
While the NSTA has the final say on the project, the non-linear decision-making process also requires approval on certain aspects from the department for energy security and net zero, and other bodies like the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment & Decommissioning (OPRED).
The NSTA also sends its final decision to the energy security secretary before it is published by OPRED.
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Ministers will not return to parliament until recess ends on 4 September, lowering, though not diminishing, the chances of a decision being published before the summer is out.
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Equinor, the Norwegian state-owned oil company developing the site, told Sky News some parts of the investment decision process by Equinor and its partners had taken longer than expected.
The formalities need to be ironed out before Equinor can move the whole process along by submitting the final field development plan to NSTA, a spokesperson said.
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But Equinor is confident it can still develop the site according to the initial timeline, they added, with first installations starting in 2024 and production starting in 2027.
The NSTA and the energy security secretary, Grant Shapps, have been threatened with legal action by campaigners if they give Equinor the go-ahead to extract 300 million barrels of oil from the site.
Campaign group Uplift last month argued in a letter that an approval of Rosebank would be unlawful, in part due to its incompatibility with the UK’s climate targets.
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Emissions just from getting the oil out of the ground at Rosebank, before its even been burned, would be enough to blow the rest of the emissions the UK has budgeted for from oil and gas production, according to Uplift’s analysis.
The NSTA says it makes a holistic assessment of the impact of any project and the government argues that local production is greener and more secure.
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