Scottish climate activists protest Equinor’s record-breaking profits
On the 8th of February, Norwegian oil giant Equinor quietly announced their profits for 2022: a whopping £62 billion. More than the profits of BP and Shell put together, this massive figure comes as a huge slap in the face to the millions of people struggling to pay their energy bills this winter, and exposes the truth that oil companies are getting richer while everyone else is getting poorer.
Climate activists across Scotland were not going to let these massive profits go unnoticed. People traveled from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Inverness and more to protest outside the Equinor building in Aberdeen on the day these obscene figures were announced.
Equinor employees watched from inside the offices as protestors gathered with banners and placards, drums, speeches and songs. The protest gained significant coverage in local and national press, turning up the heat on Equinor.
Equinor want to keep on drilling fossil fuels
One of the main demands of the protestors was for Equinor to stop their plans to develop Rosebank, the biggest undeveloped oil field in the North Sea.
This is a climate disaster waiting to happen because burning the oil and gas from Rosebank would create more CO2 emissions than the combined annual emissions of the world’s 28 lowest income countries. On top of this Equinor is due to receive a £500 million tax break from the UK Government for developing this field.
The protests in Aberdeen coincided with protests at Equinor’s offices in London as well as demonstrations from winter sports enthusiasts in Norway, all highlighting Equinor’s massive profits and calling for them to stop Rosebank.
Equinor is currently still waiting for the UK Government to give them the go-ahead to start drilling Rosebank. In December the UK Government regulator OPRED asked for more information about Equinor’s proposal, specifically around how Rosebank’s development would be aligned with both the UK Government’s and Equinor’s own ‘net zero’ targets. This delayed the decision slightly, but now it could come any day.
Regardless of whether the UK Government gives Rosebank the green light, the final decision on whether the project goes ahead lies with Equinor.
Activists from the Stop Rosebank campaign will not give up this fight and will continue putting pressure on Equinor to pull out of this destructive project. We know that Equinor is vulnerable to public pressure and can be defeated, but we need as many people on board as possible to do this.
You can also join the campaign today by joining a welcome call, or taking one of the actions on the Stop Rosebank website.