CAMPAIGNERS have insisted that a new company taking charge of controversial plans to drill for oil at Cambo will “be hellbent on selling any oil they might extract to the highest international bidder”.

The development, near Shetland has yet to obtain approval from the UK Government to begin extracting oil – but Ithaca Energy has now acquired the controlling 70 per cent stake in the oil field as part of its take-over of Siccar Point Energy.

The remaining 30% of the Cambo development is held by Shell.

Ithaca Energy has also acquired a 20% ownership stake in the huge unopened Rosebank oil field, west of Shetland. Neither the Cambo or Rosebank fields would start producing oil and gas for years.

The move comes after the UK Government said it would open another round of licensing for North Sea oil and gas developments in the autumn, announced just three days after a stark UN report demanded a rapid shift away from fossil fuels if critical climate ambitions are to remain intact.

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Friends of the Earth Scotland’s climate and energy campaigner, Caroline Rance, said: “It doesn’t matter which profiteering fossil fuel company has their name on the Cambo licence, it doesn’t change the facts about this doomed oil field.

“Exploiting Cambo will do nothing for soaring energy bills but it will further risk our collective safety by worsening climate change.

“The new owners of Cambo will be desperate to profit from their billion pound gamble meaning that they will be hellbent on selling any oil they might extract to the highest international bidder. Ithaca would take the profits but the public would bear the risk.”

She added: “The suggestion that increasing UK oil and gas production will protect consumers is simply false.

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“Opening new oil fields like Cambo and Rosebank would further lock us into a broken fossil fuel energy system that is already unaffordable for millions of households in the UK and is driving the climate emergency.

“The UK Government must reject Cambo and all new fields, and both the UK and Scottish Governments must urgently focus on scaling up renewable energy, insulating homes and rapidly increasing the number of homes using green heat systems.”

Greenpeace UK’s oil and gas campaigner, Philip Evans, labelled the move a “red herring”.

He added. “Cambo’s oil won’t improve UK energy security since the kind that can be extracted from this field can’t be processed in UK refineries. Claims to the contrary are simply lies.

“Emboldened by the UK Government’s reckless decision to green light more oil and gas extraction, fossil fuel companies will continue to profit under this pretense unless the government reverses its plans to maximise extraction.

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“The answer to the UK’s energy security does not lie in fossil fuels but in home grown renewables – both offshore and onshore – and stopping the energy waste in our homes. These fast-to-roll-out solutions will also slash emissions and bring down energy bills.”

The Scottish Government has already made clear its opposition to Cambo going ahead, with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon saying in November: “I don’t think that Cambo should get the green light.”

Alan Bruce, chief executive of Ithaca Energy, labelled the acquisition of Siccar Point Energy as a “transformational deal”.

Mr Bruce claimed the development of Cambo and the Rosebank field, also west of Shetland, presented “a huge opportunity to not only help secure the UK’s energy future for at least another quarter of a century, but also to create thousands of direct and indirect jobs in the process”.

He added: “We are excited about the future for the enlarged Ithaca, the role we will play in the UK’s energy supply, and look forward to welcoming our new colleagues from Siccar Point.”