THE UK Government will not challenge judicial reviews brought against development consent for two oil and gas fields in the North Sea.
The Labour government announced on Thursday that the cases against the Jackdaw and Rosebank offshore oil and gas fields, off the coasts of Aberdeenshire and Shetland respectively, would not be challenged.
In December last year, campaign groups Uplift and Greenpeace announced separate legal challenges against Rosebank.
Rosebank is considered to be the last major untapped oil field in UK waters. It could produce 69,000 barrels (9000 tonnes) of oil per day, about 8% of the UK’s projected daily output between 2026 and 2030, and could also produce 44 million cubic feet of gas every day, according to its owners Ithaca Energy and Equinor.
Jackdaw is owned by Shell, which said peak production was estimated at 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
The energy firms could still challenge the judicial reviews, as the UK Government has said that their decision does not mean the licences for the fields have been withdrawn.
It comes after a Supreme Court ruling that said the emissions from extracted oil and gas must be considered against legal obligations, not only the emissions generated in the act of drilling.
Before the General Election, Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted Labour would honour any oil and gas development licences granted by the Conservatives.
Tessa Khan, the executive director of just transition campaigner group Uplift, said: “We welcome this announcement by the government not to defend the case against Rosebank, the approval of which by the last government was unlawful.
“This government has rightly accepted that this huge oil field cannot proceed without the full extent of the damage it will do to our climate being taken into account. It is astonishing that the massive emissions from burning oil and gas have been overlooked by decision-makers till now.
“Experts have repeatedly warned that new oil and gas drilling will push us past safe climate limits, but Rosebank is also a bad deal for Britain. It’s mostly oil for export and would do nothing to lower bills or boost our energy security yet, because of huge tax breaks for new oil and gas drilling, the UK public would effectively cover a huge chunk of the costs of developing it.”
In 2023, now-Energy Secretary Ed Miliband attacked the Rosebank oil field as a “colossal waste of taxpayer money and climate vandalism”.
Miliband highlighted how £3.75 billion “of taxpayer subsidy which could have been invested in renewables” was to be handed to the project, adding: “Eighty per cent of oil exported, not a penny off bills, equivalent to half all UK emissions for a year.”
The news about the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields came as the UK Government announced plans for new environmental guidance for oil and gas firms “to provide stability for industry, support investment, protect jobs, deliver economic growth, and meet its climate obligations”.
Energy Minister Michael Shanks said: “This government is committed to making Britain a clean energy superpower, helping to meet our first mission to kickstart economic growth. While we make that transition the oil and gas industry will play an important role in the economy for decades to come.
“As we support the North Sea’s clean energy future, this government is committed to protecting current and future generations of good jobs as we do so.
“We were elected with a mandate to deliver stability, certainty and growth. Every action we take will be in pursuit of that. We will consult at pace on new guidance that takes into account the Supreme Court’s ruling on Environmental Impact Assessments, to enable the industry to plan, secure jobs, and invest in our economy.”
