Swinney refuses to state position on Rosebank after demand from Greens

The First Minister has refused to confirm his position on the Rosebank oil field.

John Swinney was asked in Holyrood by Scottish Green co-leader Ross Greer if he would oppose the development, off Shetland, as his predecessors Humza Yousaf and Nicola Sturgeon had done.

During First Minister’s Questions, Mr Greer said: “Nicola Sturgeon agreed that it would be the greatest act of environmental vandalism of her lifetime. Humza Yousaf said that approving the field was the wrong decision, but John Swinney has so far avoided taking a position and has quietly ditched the Scottish Government’s energy strategy – the first draft of which opposed new oil and gas exploration.

“The science is clear: if we’re to have any hope of changing course and preventing total climate breakdown, there can be no new oil and gas fields.

“Does the First Minister agree with Nicola Sturgeon that it would be the greatest act of environmental vandalism in our lifetime? Will he oppose the Rosebank oilfield?”

Mr Swinney responded that while any developments of oil and gas have to be “compatible with our journey to net zero”, there will be a requirement to continue to use fossil fuels during the transition away from them.

He said: “The approach that the Scottish Government has taken consistently through the work of my term, the term of Humza Yousaf and also Nicola Sturgeon, was to insist upon the importance of a climate compatibility assessment about any development that comes forward.

“That is the point of consistency; that any developments of oil and gas licensing have to be compatible with our journey to net zero. The importance of that point is the fact, and I think this is very widely accepted, and I think members of the Green Party accept this, there will be for some time a requirement to utilise fossil fuels as we transition from our current situation to net zero.

“The question that has to be addressed given the requirements of society in that respect is, can any of that activity be compatible with our journey to net zero and that’s the policy position of the Scottish Government.”

Rosebank lies about 80 miles north-west of Shetland and is owned by Norwegian oil giant Equinor and British firm Ithaca energy.

It is one of the largest undeveloped discoveries of fossil fuels in UK waters and is said to contain up to 300 million barrels of oil and some gas.

Development of the field was originally approved in 2023 but in January a court ruled a more detailed assessment of the field’s environmental impact was required.

Equinor has now resubmitted its application to develop Rosebank after saying nearly 250 million tonnes of planet warming gas would be released from using oil products from the field.

The field’s developer has said its emissions are “not significant” considering the UK’s international climate commitments.