Burnham government set to approve Jackdaw gasfield on Wednesday, Guardian reports

The Jackdaw gasfield in the North Sea is due to be given the go-ahead on Wednesday, Oct. 21, according to the Guardian. The government has not yet made the announcement.

The Guardian reports that Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh and John Healey will make the announcement from Aberdeen on Wednesday morning. That would end more than a year of deliberation over whether approval is compatible with the UK's climate commitments.

What Jackdaw is

Jackdaw is a gas field about 150 miles east of Aberdeen, operated by Shell and the Norwegian company Equinor. Production there was expected to last under a decade.

Once fully operational it would account for about 6% of North Sea gas production, the Guardian reports. Shell puts the figure at around 6.5% of UK gas production at peak.

The Conservative Party, which has pushed for approval, says the field could heat 1.4 million homes this winter. The source said production could be up and running within months.

How it got here

The previous Conservative government approved both Jackdaw and the Rosebank oilfield in 2022. Last year a court in Edinburgh ruled those approvals unlawful after a challenge from Greenpeace and another nonprofit. Judge Andrew Stewart found regulators should have counted the emissions from burning the oil and gas the fields would produce.

Shell and Equinor resubmitted their environmental application last September. Fahnbulleh and her predecessor, Ed Miliband, have spent the months since weighing whether to block it.

The Daily Record's Sunday Mail reported that Fahnbulleh is expected to say drilling can proceed after a new assessment by the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning. Its industry source said the decision "was made weeks ago" and that only the timing of the announcement remained open.

Pressure has come from several directions. Donald Trump urged both Burnham and his predecessor, Keir Starmer, to "open up the North Sea". Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch told the prime minister to "stop faffing about" and approve drilling.

Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander told the Sunday Mail the government's approach is "pragmatic, not ideological". He said there would be "no cliff edge for the North Sea".

The objections

Labour came to power in 2024 promising not to grant new North Sea licences. Jackdaw is an already-licensed field awaiting a fresh consent decision, but the approval will still be read as a test of that pledge. The Guardian says it threatens a row with Labour MPs.

Tessa Khan, executive director of the campaign group Uplift, disputes the economics. "Jackdaw will provide around just 2% of our gas demand for roughly 10 years," she said. "It has been oversold and won't stop the overall decline in North Sea jobs, as it will be largely unmanned and operated remotely."

She added: "Labour's climate credibility is on the line. No new oil and gasfields are compatible with safe climate limits."

Critics also argue that UK gas prices are set on international markets, so domestic output does little for household bills. The Daily Record's industry source offered the opposite view. He said the field was needed at a time when wars in the Middle East and between Russia and Ukraine are straining global supply, and that it preserves engineering skills Scotland will need for the energy transition.

The job numbers are also disputed. An analysis paid for by Adura, the Equinor and Shell joint venture, found that blocking Rosebank, Jackdaw and other planned developments would mean 3,330 fewer jobs supported each year and £10.8 billion less economic value for the UK. Oxfam Scotland dismissed the study as "like asking a seagull whether chips should be left unguarded".

Rosebank is the harder call

The bigger fight is still ahead. Rosebank, 80 miles north of the Shetland Islands, is the largest undeveloped oil and gas field in the UK, with reported capacity of 300 million to 500 million barrels over about 25 years. The Sunday Mail reported that a decision on it is not expected until later in the autumn.

Ten unions, including Unison, the National Education Union, the Public and Commercial Services Union and the Fire Brigades Union, have signed an open letter urging Burnham to reject it. They say most of Rosebank's oil is destined for export and would do nothing for bills or energy security. They also claim tax breaks for new drilling could produce a net loss to the Treasury of more than £250 million.

Unison general secretary Andrea Egan said the more fossil fuels are burned, "the more extreme our weather will become". NEU president Ed Harlow said approving Rosebank after this summer's heat would be "outright arson".

The government has not set a date for the Rosebank decision.