The UK government is expected to announce on Wednesday, 21 October, that it will approve the Jackdaw gas field, according to Whitehall sources cited by the BBC. The announcement is due in the morning from Aberdeen, with Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh and Chancellor John Healey named by the Guardian as the ministers making it, and Fahnbulleh expected to address MPs that afternoon. The field sits about 150 miles east of Aberdeen and holds an estimated 200 million barrels of oil equivalent, which the New York Times reported would be used in Britain and fed into the gas network. Shell and Equinor operate the project, and Equinor wants to develop both Jackdaw and Rosebank. Its operators say the field could be connected to the UK network within months.
The field was first approved by the Conservative government in 2022, and ministers at the time argued it would help shield the UK from energy market volatility caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Labour's 2024 manifesto promised no new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, while pledging to honour existing ones. Supporters within the party argue Jackdaw is not a new fossil fuel field, since work to tap it was under way before Labour took power. A Court of Session ruling in Edinburgh last year found that Rosebank and Jackdaw had been unlawfully approved because the government had not weighed the climate impact of burning the oil and gas they would produce. In a BBC Radio Scotland interview in mid-October, Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander said ministers were being cautious in public statements to avoid repeating the mistakes of the previous government, which ended up in court.
Rosebank, described as Britain's largest untapped oil field and located about 80 miles north-west of Shetland, is still under consideration. Fahnbulleh has said a decision on it will take 'a bit longer', which suggests it will come separately from Jackdaw. Donald Trump has claimed the UK is 'sitting on top of gold' and has urged Prime Minister Andy Burnham to approve more drilling in the basin, as he did with former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer. Burnham has said the government will not back away from the issue.
Environmental campaigners have said the approval would undermine Labour's green credentials. Tessa Khan, executive director of the anti-oil campaign group Uplift, put the scale of the field in stark terms:
“Jackdaw will provide around just 2% of our gas demand for roughly 10 years.”
Once fully operational, Jackdaw will account for 6% of North Sea gas production, according to the Guardian, which makes it one of the biggest gasfields not yet in production. Khan went further in her criticism of the government's climate position:
“Labour's climate credibility is on the line. No new oil and gasfields are compatible with safe climate limits.”
Industry bodies argue that starting production at both fields would create jobs and improve energy security as overseas conflicts threaten supply. The North Sea basin is losing jobs as reserves decline and platforms become increasingly automated.
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The decision on Jackdaw is expected on Wednesday, 21 October, while Rosebank remains pending with no date given. Environmentalists see the outcome as a key test of Burnham's credibility on climate change, and campaigners have urged him to refuse consent for both fields.
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Whitehall sources say ministers will announce the approval on Wednesday, 21 October, while Rosebank, a separate oil field off Shetland, is expected to be decided later.
AI text based on reports by The New York Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph and other publishers. Published .