Burnham Missed His Own September Deadline on North Sea Oil, Offers 'Pragmatic' Instead

Andy Burnham's government told the oil and gas industry it would decide the fate of two major North Sea fields by early September 2026, ahead of Labour's party conference season. That deadline came and went. What delegates got instead was a promise from Burnham to take a "pragmatic approach" to the North Sea, a phrase his energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, had already used days earlier when she said oil and gas would remain "part of the mix" for decades to come.

The Rosebank and Jackdaw fields, both owned by a joint venture between Equinor and Shell called Adura, have been stuck in limbo for more than two years after a court ruling halted work on both. The two fields together could produce nearly a billion barrels of oil and supply more than six percent of the UK's gas demand. A government consultation on their future wrapped up in August 2026. No decision has followed.

Fahnbulleh made her first ministerial trip to Aberdeen just three days after being appointed, a visit that took her predecessor, Ed Miliband, more than four months to arrange. Offshore Energies UK chief executive David Whitehouse called the trip "an important signal," and the group's energy policy director, Enrique Cornejo, told OilPrice.com that approving both fields would be "an important first step." Beyond that early outreach, Cornejo and others say they have little concrete progress to point to.

Industry executives call it a 'no-brainer'

Simone Rossi, chief executive of EDF Energy, has become one of the most prominent voices pushing for approval. Rossi told the BBC, in remarks reported by both the Guardian and London Loves Business, that greenlighting Rosebank and Jackdaw is "a no-brainer" that does not contradict the UK's net zero goals. His argument: Britain will depend on fossil fuels for decades regardless, so it should use its own reserves rather than import them, and locally produced oil and gas carry a smaller transport-emissions footprint than imports.

"No matter what we do, that's going to happen, unfortunately, because climate change is driven by global dynamics," Rossi said, rejecting the idea that blocking the two fields would meaningfully shift the planet's climate trajectory.

Rossi isn't alone. The Guardian reports that Octopus Energy founder Greg Jackson, former GB Energy boss Jürgen Maier, and RenewableUK chief Tara Singh have all made similar cases, alongside Labour figures including former chancellor Rachel Reeves, defence secretary Wes Streeting, and former Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.

Climate campaigners want the opposite decision

That industry consensus runs into real opposition. Ed Miliband, before leaving his post as energy secretary, called Rosebank "climate vandalism," according to London Loves Business. Green Party co-leader Zack Polanski has pressed ministers to deny final consent to both fields following a summer the Guardian describes as marked by heatwaves tied to the broader climate crisis, alongside volatile oil and gas prices. Environmental groups argue that approving two major new fossil fuel developments, two years after a court specifically paused them over climate grounds, undercuts any claim the government is serious about emissions reduction.

Grid company, same conference

The same speech produced a separate announcement. Burnham unveiled Great British Grid, a new arm of Great British Energy that will invest public money alongside private firms in electricity network infrastructure, according to Envirotec Magazine and solarpowerportal. Burnham said it would "challenge the private sector operators," increase competition, and speed up grid connections, with an ambition to bring UK energy costs in line with European neighbors within ten years.

The government says reforms have already stripped more than 300GW of speculative capacity out of the connections queue and points to Ireland, where similar reforms cut connection times by up to 11 months, according to Envirotec. Solar Energy UK chief executive Chris Hewett welcomed the move but noted, per Envirotec, that waiting times for solar farms and commercial installations can still stretch into the 2030s, and questions remain over exactly what GB Grid's remit will be.

A pattern of promises without delivery

Burnham's handling of a defense funding request has drawn criticism as evidence he talks big and delivers little. When Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch pressed him in the Commons to redirect £4 billion from housing benefits to the armed forces, Burnham refused, saying "national security cannot come at the expense of social security." This exchange was cited in an opinion piece for the Daily Wire, which noted the funding rejection as part of a broader pattern.

No new decision date on Rosebank and Jackdaw has been announced. OEUK's Cornejo says approval would be a first step, not a finish line, for an industry that argues every month of delay costs jobs and tax revenue while the rest of Europe doubles down on domestic energy supply.