NORWAY’S state-owned oil company Equinor has been accused of “rubbing salt in the wound of the cost-of-living crisis” as it announced profits of £21 billion in the third quarter of this year.

The company is also pressing for worldwide fossil fuel expansion despite this week’s warning from the United Nations that global warming is reaching an irreversible level.

Environment campaign group Friends of the Earth Scotland (FoE) said that the company is waiting for permission from the Westminster government to develop the Rosebank oil field, the North Sea’s largest undeveloped field.

FoE Scotland’s oil and gas campaigner Freya Aitchison said: “The announcement of yet another obscene profit for Equinor rubs salt into the wound of those experiencing the effects of the cost-of-living crisis.

“While oil companies continue to make record-breaking profits, ordinary people are facing sky-rocketing energy bills and millions are being pushed into fuel poverty.

“Equinor’s plans to develop the massive Rosebank oil field fly in the face of climate science and will do nothing to alleviate the cost-of-living crisis.

“The oil in Rosebank will be exported and sold on the open market, further inflating Equinor’s massive profits while keeping us locked into volatile fossil fuels.”

Ms Aitchison called on the Scottish government to use its forthcoming Energy Strategy to move away from fossil fuels and towards an energy system built on clean, reliable renewables.

Equinor’s dividends will benefit Norwegian energy users and taxpayers, in the same way that profits from French state-owned energy firm EDF in Britain benefit energy users and taxpayers in France.