Controversial Cambo oil field delayed
Work won't commence until next year on the site - which has been under heavy criticism
Work at the controversial Cambo oil field off Shetland has been postponed until next year.
The Chief Executive of developers Siccar Point Energy Jonathan Roger said "operational issues'' and a "closing weather window'' were the the issue.
Although now the environmental campaigners Greenpeace have claimed a protest by their activists was behind the move.
They took Kayaks out to the ship being used by Siccar Point in Stavanger, Norway - with a banner which demanded action from Boris Johnson.
The protesters told the PM: "Boris: Stop Cambo.''
Mel Evans, head of oil and gas transition at Greenpeace UK, said: "Johnson must stop Cambo, or he will be remembered as a climate coward.''
Campaigners say that the field could produce up to 255 Million barrels of oil - which could produce an estimated 132 million tonnes of Co2 emissions - requiring an area of land the equivalent size to that of Scotland to contract.
Mr Roger said contractors had applied for a separate consent to install constructor anchor nodes as part of the preparatory work.
He said: "This work needs to be carried out before well construction and so can legally sit out with the full field development environmental consent process.
"Work would only ever begin with the appropriate regulatory approvals in place and a decision has been made to delay this until 2022 due to operational issues and given the closing weather window west of Shetland for this kind of operation.''