UK approves North Sea Jackdaw gas development

Spanish Market: Condensate, Natural gas
21/10/26

The UK government has approved development of the Jackdaw gas field, one of two North Sea projects ruled unlawful in Scotland in 2025.

Consent has been given by UK oil and gas regulator NSTA to Jackdaw's owners Adura, a Shell-Equinor joint venture. The government said Jackdaw will begin production at the end of this month, and at peak the field will increase domestic gas production by around 6pc.

Shell had projected peak output at 4.85mn m³/d of gas and around 7,500 b/d of condensate. The field will be tied back to the Shearwater platform for onward movement through the Fulmar Gas Line and the Forties Pipeline System.

Development of Jackdaw was delayed by a Scottish court ruling in January 2025 that consent granted previously, for Jackdaw and the Rosebank oil field, was unlawful because it did not consider the scope 3 emissions caused by end users burning the fields' oil and gas. Scope 3 emissions typically make up between 85pc and 95pc of an oil and gas company's total emissions.

The Scottish court ruling allowed the UK government to make a new decision, taking into account downstream emissions, which Shell puts at a maximum 35.82mn t CO2 equivalent (CO2e), and a likely 23.6mn t CO2e. The government said approval will not prevent the UK from being able to meet its climate goals, which was a core argument from environmental groups opposed to development of Jackdaw and Rosebank.

Non-profit Greenpeace today said subsequent approval of Rosebank would "detonate an even bigger "carbon bomb".

Rosebank's developer, Norwegian state-controlled Equinor, has said it expects London to approve the project.

The UK government also today said it will establish an Energy Wealth Fund, which will use tax revenues from North Sea oil and gas to invest in low carbon and renewable energy projects. The government will inject an initial £2bn ($2.7bn) into the fund.

UK union Unite welcomed the government's decision to approve the Jackdaw field. "Now we urgently need to use that and invest in industries like wind turbine manufacture and refining green jet fuel," the union general secretary Sharon Graham said. "We simply cannot let go of one rope until we have hold of another," she added.

By Ben Winkley

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20/10/26

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19/10/26

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