• Cameron backs £4bn plan for 'new Atlantic frontier'
• Greenpeace warns of oil spills and rising emissions
• Greenpeace warns of oil spills and rising emissions
BP faced fresh condemnation from environmentalists on Thursday after it got the go-ahead to invest £4bn to develop one of the North Sea's largest oilfields off Shetland.
The company has been criticised by green campaigners for trying to open up "a new Atlantic frontier" west of Shetland, to replace dwindling reserves in other parts of the North Sea.
BP's latest move to extract oil from the Clair Ridge field was immediately criticised by Greenpeace, which claimed it was now "frankly risible forDavid Cameron to claim that this government will be the 'greenest ever'."
Greenpeace said: "While [energy secretary] Chris Huhne likes to portray himself as the good green guy of the cabinet, all those around him are pledging the UK to a dirty fuel future that will do only one thing: increase CO2 emissions and cause irreparable damage to the environment."
Green groups have already criticised BP for seeking permits to drill a potentially hazardous deep-water well 1,300 metres below the surface in the North Uist field – a seabed block named after the Hebridean island but located 80 miles north-west of Shetland.
However, the prime minister threw his weight behind BP, declaring: "We should be looking to try and make these things happen rather than ruling them out."
The firm had planned to start drilling in the North Uist area last year but the launch date was postponed following the Deepwater Horizon disaster, in which 11 workers were killed and 4.9m barrels of oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico.
Now the company is pushing ahead, prompting environmental groups to write to Huhne urging him to withhold consent. They warn that a spill could be disastrous and that exploiting new oil reserves would be harmful to the climate.
But during a visit to BP's headquarters in Aberdeen, Cameron appeared to dismiss those concerns when he said: "There are some people who you will never reassure, who quite frankly would probably prefer we weren't recovering oil from any part of the North Sea. I don't think you're going to convince them."
Cameron said he was delighted to give BP the go-ahead for the next phase of development of the huge Clair Ridge field, 50 miles from Shetland, which is not in deep water. He said it was "great news for Aberdeen and the country and provides a massive boost for jobs and growth".
BP said its Clair investment was its biggest in a single year in the North Sea and, together with other recently announced projects off the UK, should enable it "to maintain our production from the North Sea to around 200,000-250,000 barrels a day until 2030".
The UK energy group, headed by Bob Dudley, desperately needs good news after several international setbacks that resulted in shares falling. Besides the disastrous Mexican Gulf oil spill, BP's joint venture in the Arctic with Russia's Rosneft collapsed.
So far this year, BP has announced North Sea investments worth £10bn, including contributions from its partners, Shell, Chevron and ConocoPhillips. Dudley said: "Although it began over 40 years ago, the story of the North Sea oil industry has a long way yet to run. BP has produced some 5bn barrels of oil and gas equivalent so far from the region and we believe we have the potential for over 3bn more."
BP said after a "decade of decline", industry-wide oil investment in the North Sea and the Atlantic margin was now increasingly strongly once more. The announcement of the Clair scheme comes after BP and its partners revealed plans earlier this year for a £3bn redevelopment of the Schiehallion and Loyal oilfields, also to the west of Shetland. In addition, they are investing £700m in developing the Kinnoull field in the central North Sea.
Cameron said: "We live in a very dangerous and difficult world. We do not want to be over-reliant on energy supplies from difficult parts of the world, from unstable parts of the world. And it is a huge national advantage having such a brilliant oil and gas industry here in Aberdeen and here in the North Sea.
"We should treasure that and want to see it expand, want to see it grow, want to see it be part of a good and diversified energy industry in the UK."
According to BP, since the late 1960s, £300bn has been invested in exploration drilling and field developments on the UK continental shelf – and a similar figure has been paid in corporate taxes. BP alone has invested about £35bn into the UK North Sea, paying more than £40bn to the government in tax
Dudley said: "We have a major presence in the North Sea today, operating around 40 oil and gas fields, four onshore terminals and a network of pipelines that transport almost half of the UK's oil and gas production. And as demonstrated by these announcements, the region still offers competitive, attractive investment opportunities, which we will pursue."
Over the next few years, BP will be bringing onstream more major project developments in the UK than ever before over a similar period, it said.
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