Crises, North Sea Oil and Covid-19
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Jun 17, 2020
Last month I spoke on behalf of Platform at an online event on the theme of ‘People Over Profit and Covid-19’ organised by our collaborators Kate and Ryan at Friends of the Earth Scotland. It was a really engaging event with two other speakers followed by breakout groups and a wider discussion afterwards. I looked...
Phasing out North Sea oil – what does it mean for jobs in Scotland?
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Sep 17, 2019
This blog is a version of our presentation of the report Sea Change: Climate Emergency, Jobs, and Managing the Phase-Out of UK Oil and Gas Extraction, at its launch event in Edinburgh on 11 September 2019. An abridged version has appeared in the Herald on Sunday. We know that tackling the climate emergency means...
Silence in the Storm – Business and No Deal Brexit
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Feb 28, 2019
The storm in Westminster rages so ferociously that at times it’s hard to hear ourselves think. There is second by second coverage of the House of Commons and Downing Street from every conceivable angle. Backbenchers so obscure that we’ve never heard of them before are dragged through the TV studios and closely cross-questioned. Others...
There is no magic money tree, except for handouts for BP
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Jul 3, 2017
The UK government paid oil companies $312 million to drill in the North Sea during the fiscal year 2016-2017 according to a new report by the HMRC, The Times reports. Successive UK governments insist “there is no magic money tree” to fund public hospitals and schools, or to insulate cold homes. But apparently the magic...
Today’s oil drilling round could bust us through UK’s climate limits
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Oct 26, 2016
The UK government is pushing a massive new offshore drilling programme, that will take the UK beyond its climate limits. Oil companies had until 2pm today to bid for 1200 blocks covering large swathes of the sea off North-west and North-east Scotland and England. This is the the 29th Offshore Licensing Round, and it aims to identify hundreds of millions in...
Subsidising spills – British public pays BP $300 million to drill and spill
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Oct 7, 2016
BP came under criticism this week when it caused a 95 tonne oil leak from its Clair Field into the North Sea. The company decided not to clear up the spill, and wait for the oil to wash further out to sea. The new spill comes as BP no longer pays net taxes to the...
How to save energy jobs in Scotland: Public ownership, not tax cuts
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Aug 25, 2015
As thousands of North Sea oil workers lose their jobs, helicopter pilots threaten strike action over redundancy arrangements and Unite criticise the oil companies of failing “to plan for a rainy day when the sun shone”, we thought we’d share an extract of this new report. ——————————————————- Extract from “Jobs in Scotland’s New Economy”, published by the Scottish...
#Budget2015: Welfare for Fossil Fuels, Austerity for the rest
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Mar 18, 2015
This blog was written jointly with Greg Muttitt of Oil Change International Today, Osborne announced massive tax breaks and subsidies for North Sea oil companies. A new £1.3 billion in subsidies will be handed to oil companies, with the burden transferred to the public. £1.3 billion could cover the costs of employing another 20,000 nurses...
The battle of definitions: ‘no subsidies for the oil industry’
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May 13, 2013
The oil and gas industry enjoys no subsidy from government, nor are we asking for any. – said last week by Oil&Gas UK CEO Malcolm Webb at the Oil Politics conference at Aberdeen University (I should mention that there were several more substantial conversations at this conference that I will take a little time to write...
Satellite images of Shell’s massive spill in Nigeria
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Dec 22, 2011
The Bonga oil field, one of Shell’s largest offshore oil facilities was shut down on Tuesday 20 December after a massive oil spill. The cause? It appears to be a combination of human error and / or equipment failure. What the BBC describes as “leak during a transfer of oil to a tanker” led to...
BBC: Shell spill: what happened & why it matters to Shell
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Aug 19, 2011
An in depth account of the Shell’s North Sea oil spill – the largest in a decade – and why it matters, by BBC Business News, with mention of Platform, Greenpeace & others. Shell spill: What happened and why it matters to Shell By Damian KahyaBusiness reporter, BBC News Environmental groups are furious that the...
Oil spill exposes Shell’s ticking timebomb
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Aug 17, 2011
For Shell, the timing of a spill at its Gannet A facility in the UK North Sea couldn’t have been worse. For months, it has been selling its reputation as a responsible and cutting-edge oil company in its bid to drill in the Beaufort Sea in the US Arctic – and it recently won approval. Read our...
