A public consultation into the controversial Rosebank oil field is underway, with energy company bosses calling for “timely consent” to be granted for both it and the Jackdaw development to “deliver the greatest benefit for the UK”.
Rosebank and Jackdaw: Key Figures and Economic Impact
Neil McCulloch, the chief executive of Adura – which wants to develop both fields – spoke out as the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning (Opred) opened a public consultation on the Rosebank oil and gas field. Rosebank, which lies some 80 miles north-west of Shetland, is the UK’s largest untapped field and contains up to an estimated 300 million barrels of oil.
While environmental campaigners are opposed to the project due to concerns over its climate change impact, Adura said the project would lead to £8.7 billion of investment. The UK Government will decide on whether Rosebank will proceed, but Mr McCulloch stressed its “national scale and significance”.
Together with the Jackdaw development, he said it could help support a “nationally significant programme of reindustrialisation” for the UK, “stimulating economic growth, sustaining thousands of jobs and apprenticeships, and providing substantial revenues to fund public services”. With a consultation having recently started on developing the Jackdaw gas field, Adura said the two projects combined would bring £10.8 billion of investment – with over three quarters of that in the UK.
Employment and Energy Production Projections
Over their lifetimes, Rosebank and Jackdaw could generate up to £28.7 billion in economic activity in the UK, Adura added, supporting more than 3,500 jobs at the peak of construction, with 880 positions throughout the entirety of the work. If given the go-ahead, the two projects could at their peak provide about 10% of the UK’s domestic natural gas production, with Rosebank also expected to produce approximately 69,000 barrels of oil per day at its peak – the equivalent of about 10% of anticipated UK Continental Shelf oil output.
With total UK oil production projected to fall to approximately 420,000 barrels per day by 2030, Adura said that Rosebank is large enough to slow the decline in domestic production by several years, reducing the pace at which the UK becomes increasingly dependent on international markets.
CEO Neil McCulloch's Statement
Speaking as the consultation, which will run until August 17, commenced, Mr McCulloch said: “Rosebank is a project of national scale and significance. It represents an anticipated investment of £8.7 billion and has the potential to support businesses, skilled workers and communities across the UK for many years to come.”
The Adura chief executive added: “We welcome the opening of public consultation and would encourage everyone who wants to see Britain strengthen its energy security, create high-quality jobs and support its world-class energy supply chain to make their voice heard in support of this endeavour. The scale of the supply-chain opportunity is particularly significant. From Shetland to Southend, businesses across the UK are already contributing their skills and expertise to delivering Rosebank and Jackdaw.”
Mr McCulloch insisted: “Timely consent for both Rosebank and Jackdaw is the way to deliver the greatest benefit for the UK – supporting domestic energy production, unlocking billions of pounds of economic activity and giving supply-chain businesses the confidence to invest in their people and our industrial future.”
Environmental Opposition and Climate Concerns
Tessa Khan, executive director at Uplift, which won the legal case against Rosebank in 2025, said: “Rosebank has nothing to do with the UK’s energy security and everything to do with increasing the profits of a few, already obscenely wealthy, oil companies. Rosebank won’t take a penny off our bills or meaningfully boost UK energy supplies – it’s overwhelmingly oil for export. But burning its oil would produce emissions equal to 70% of the UK’s annual total, making it utterly incompatible with safe climate limits.”
Scottish Greens MSP Mark Ruskell also raised concerns about Rosebank, saying approving the project “would be a catastrophe for our climate”. Mr Ruskell added: “The UK Government knows the damage it would cause. It has seen the science, heard the warnings and watched the project unravel in court. Nothing since has made Rosebank any less harmful.”
