Virtue-signalling over oil development is hypocrisy

Three months ago, Simon Roddy, upstream director at oil major Shell, warned that the very future of the UK oil and gas industry was at stake in the row over the Cambo oil project.

Roddy insisted Shell’s investment in greener energy sources and emissions reduction on rigs relied on investors having certainty about the rules on oil and gas development.

This year, Roddy’s boss, Shell chief executive Ben Van Beurden, offered a similar defence of the scheme, arguing that the investment was needed to meet continuing demand for oil and gas.

What changed? Well for one thing, the certainty surrounding the rules on oil and gas development, it seems.

Continue reading