Senior industry sources have told the Sunday Mail that the controversial Jackdaw gas field project off the coast of Aberdeen is set to receive final ministerial approval this week. The licence, which has been awaited since 2024, will support up to 3,500 jobs and generate billions of pounds in tax revenues.
Approval expected after years of delay
The project has been awaiting approval since 2024 due to a High Court ruling that a previous licence was invalid because it had not taken all environmental consequences into account. Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh is expected to announce that drilling can now go ahead after a new assessment by the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning.
A senior industry source told the Sunday Mail: “We are expecting the final ministerial approval this week, the decision was made weeks ago and it has just been a question of when to announce.”
Jobs and energy security at stake
The source added: “This will be the biggest boost to the North Sea industry in over a decade. It will secure thousands of jobs for many years and we would hope to have production up and running in months.” The field will be capable of directly supplying the UK grid with gas at a time when global insecurity has placed a renewed focus on energy security.
However, environmentalists warn it will emit millions of tonnes of carbon and distract from the development of green energy alternatives. The Jackdaw field is described as the largest untapped gas field in the UK.
Rosebank decision pending
A separate licence for the Rosebank oil field off Shetland is also under consideration, but a decision is not expected until later in the Autumn. Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander told the Sunday Mail there would be “no cliff edge for the North Sea”.
He said: “Our approach to the North Sea as the UK Government is pragmatic, not ideological. I want every family in the North East, and right across Scotland, whose wages come from offshore to hear that loud and clear.”
The companies behind the Jackdaw gas field project are Shell PLC and Norwegian state controlled Equinor, which combined their UK offshore oil and gas businesses into a joint venture named Adura. The Rosebank project is a collaboration between Adura and Ithaca Energy.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham is facing demands to ban Ithaca - a subsidiary of the Israeli Delek Group - due to its links to illegal Israeli settlements. Former First Minister Humza Yousaf and Green Party leader Zack Polanski have warned granting a drilling licence to Ithaca would breach Burnham’s own trade sanctions.
