Cambo Oil and Gas Field (United Kingdom)

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Cambo Oil and Gas Field is an in development oil and gas field in United Kingdom.

Cambo Oil and Gas Field is also sometimes referred to as Cambo Phase 1 Oil and Gas Field.

Project Details

Main Data

Table 1: Field-level project details for Cambo Oil and Gas Field

*Final Investment Decision

Unit name	Status	Operator	Owner	Discovery year	FID* year	Production start year
Cambo	In development	Ithaca Energy	Ithaca Energy (70.0%); Shell (30.0%)	2002	2024 (expected)	2025 (expected)

Production and Reserves

Table 2: Reserves of Cambo Oil and Gas Field

million m³ = million cubic meters

million bbl = million barrels of oil

Fuel Description	Reserve Classification	Quantity	Units	Data Year	Source
gas	Recoverable resources	1514.94	million m³	2021
oil	recoverable reserves	800	million bbl	[not stated]
oil	Recoverable resources	170	million bbl	2023

Table 3: Production from Cambo Oil and Gas Field

million m³/y = million cubic meters per year

million bbl/y = million barrels of oil per year

Category	Fuel Description	Quantity	Units	Data Year	Source
production design capacity	gas	310.07	million m³/y	[not stated]
production design capacity	oil	18.61	million bbl/y	[not stated]
production design capacity	oil	19.49	million bbl/y	2029
production design capacity	gas	227.38	million m³/y	2029

Location

Table 4: field-level location details for Cambo Oil and Gas Field

Concession/Block	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
204/4a, 204/5a, 204/9a, 204/10a	Offshore, United Kingdom	60.8091, -4.1211 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the field:

Loading map...

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Background

The field was discovered in 2002 by Hess Corporation and appraised by four appraisal wells in 2012. In March 2014, Austrian oil and gas group OMV acquired the licenses for the project from Hess and became the operator of Cambo. In January 2017, Siccar Point Energy acquired the assets from OMV group and drilled the fifth and final appraisal well 204/10a-5 in 2018. Ithaca Energy acquired Siccar Point Energy in July of 2022 and serves as the field operator. The project is owned by Ithaca Energy Limited (70%) and Shell plc (30%). Ithaca Energy is a wholly owned subsidiary of Delek Group. As of August 2022, Shell was intending to sell its 30% stake in the project.

Field developers initially planned for FID in Q3 2020, but that was deferred due to Covid-19. FID was then expected to be reached in 2021 with production starting in 2025. However, in December 2021, after facing sustained criticism from environmental groups, Shell announced its decision to sell its 30% stake in the project, stating that the economic case for investment in the North Atlantic project was not strong enough, and later that same month, Siccar Point Energy made the decision to pause the project. In March 2022, the field was granted a two-year license extension, which gives the companies exclusive rights to explore the field. In August 2022, Shell launched a sale process for its 30% stake.

Opposition

The project has faced significant criticism from environmental groups. Cambo field’s EIA does not account for its Scope 3 emissions, which include transporting, processing, distributing and, most significantly, using the oil products. As the COP26 climate summit was being hosted in Glasgow in November 2021, ongoing controversy surrounded the project’s development. #StopCambo campaign gathered more than a hundred thousand signatures from the public and over 80 civil society organizations on an open letter calling on the government to stop the project. Opposition to or concern over the project has also been expressed by dozens of MPs and the UK Labour Party, Green Party, Scottish Labour, Scottish Greens, and Scottish National Party. Greenpeace is also considering taking legal action if the UK government approves the project.

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of oil and gas extraction sites, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Oil and Gas Extraction Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.