U.K.’s contested Cambo oil field secures license extension

(Bloomberg) — A controversial U.K. oil project won a license extension, keeping open the possibility of development even after Shell Plc retreated amid a backlash from climate protesters.

The Cambo field has received a two-year extension from the energy regulator, operator Siccar Point Energy Ltd. said Wednesday. The project was put on ice late last year after minority owner Shell chose to ditch its investment. The U.K. major is now reconsidering that decision as the government seeks to spur domestic production after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the BBC has reported. 

“Siccar Point continues to work with its co-venturer Shell and the U.K. government to map out the next steps,” the operator said in a statement. Shell said separately that there’s “no change to our position of December,” but the license extension “will allow time to evaluate all potential future options.”

Despite being a relative minnow globally, the North Sea field is one of Britain’s biggest potential oil and gas developments, with the first phase targeting the equivalent of 170 million barrels of crude. Climate protesters have argued that it’s at odds with the U.K.’s goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050.

The field’s two licenses had been due to expire at the end of March. Cambo had been expected to start output around 2025 and potentially pump oil until the middle of the century.

The license extension prompted a fresh wave of criticism from environmental groups on Wednesday, with Greenpeace questioning the need to develop the field altogether. 

“No doubt we will now hear about how plans to drill for a high-sulfur crude oil, which we cannot refine in the U.K. and will not be produced for years, are vital to the U.K.’s energy security,” Greenpeace campaigner Philip Evans said in a statement. “Cambo will do nothing to ease the current gas-price crisis.”