Britain approves Jackdaw development in the North Sea — The Guardian

The UK government has approved environmental consent for the development of the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea, operated by Shell. The decision on the controversial project was expected, The Guardian reports.

Licence and environmental consent

The companies behind Jackdaw and the Rosebank oil project applied for environmental approval under existing licences. In its 2024 election manifesto, the Labour Party promised to ban the issuing of new licences for drilling in the North Sea.

Environmental consents for both projects were previously overturned following a court ruling: the companies had to take into account carbon emissions that would result from burning the extracted oil and gas. Shell operates Jackdaw, while Norway's Equinor is developing Rosebank. A decision on Rosebank will be made separately.

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Industry and environmentalists' positions

The oil and gas industry says that Jackdaw and Rosebank will provide 10% of the UK's production volumes at peak output. Adura, Shell and Equinor's North Sea joint venture, commissioned a study which found that abandoning the two projects would cost the British economy almost £10.8 billion over the next decade.

Environmental organisation Uplift, by contrast, is calling for Jackdaw and Rosebank to be abandoned. Its executive director, Tessa Khan, said that Jackdaw would meet about 2% of the country's gas demand for around 10 years and would not halt job losses in the North Sea, as the facility would be operated largely remotely.

A Savanta poll conducted for climate group E3G found that almost a third of voters said they would be less likely to vote Labour if new drilling in the North Sea were approved. This view was expressed by about a third of those who voted for the party in the last election, as well as nearly half of respondents aged 18 to 24.