UK government approves Jackdaw gas drilling after years of net-zero pledges, ministers cite energy security while industry demands Rosebank next, fuel-driven inflation lands weeks before the Budget

Images

Fresh public consultations on the proposals took place this year and closed in August, and the government gave the green light to Jackdaw on Wednesday morning (PA Archive) PA Archive

Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh (Maja Smiejkowska/PA) (PA Wire) PA Wire

Ms Fahnbulleh said it is “much better” to use domestically produced gas than import it, but admitted drilling in the Jackdaw gas field will not bring down bills this winter (Stefano Massini/Adura/Press Association) Stefano Massini/Adura/Press Association

standard.co.uk

The British government has approved drilling in the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea, ending months of speculation and delivering a decision that energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh said would "support the country's energy security with homegrown gas this winter." Prime Minister Andy Burnham framed the approval as a matter of households and payrolls: it would "protect hundreds of jobs and help keep millions of homes warm," while insisting it would not hinder the government's renewable energy targets.

The field lies 150 miles east of Aberdeen and could deliver around 6 per cent of UK North Sea gas production, according to its owner, Adura. Russell Borthwick, chief executive of the Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce, said Jackdaw is 99.9 per cent complete and that gas will flow into homes "within weeks" of approval. His next sentence carried the industry's real message: Rosebank, described as the largest untapped oil field in the North Sea, is "every bit as vital" and should be approved "without further delay." Fahnbulleh confirmed a Rosebank decision will take "a bit longer."

Both Jackdaw and Rosebank received drilling licences in June 2022 under the previous Conservative government, and both approvals were overturned by Scottish courts after challenges from environmental campaigners. Wednesday's green light is therefore a reapproval, issued by a government that has spent years promising net zero — not on the strength of new convictions, but under the pressure of fuel prices. The same day's inflation figures showed CPI at 3.5 per cent, the highest in almost a year, driven above all by motor fuels, with diesel at its highest cost since July 2022. The gas the government wants out of the seabed is the same gas whose price is squeezing the households it says it wants to keep warm.

Environmental campaigners called the decision "deeply disappointing" and warned it would "supercharge the climate chaos hitting families here and abroad." The Scottish Government's energy minister, Stephen Gethins, took a different route to the same grievance, noting that the UK has been "almost the only country to discover oil and gas without delivering a long-term benefit from the finite resource" and calling for Treasury oil revenues to be placed in a future generations fund rather than plugging short-term spending gaps.

Burnham has faced backlash from the Labour left and Greens over the approval, while the Conservatives note the decision arrives two years after the courts voided their own. A government that pledged emissions cuts now discovers that arithmetic at the pump does not negotiate — and approves the drilling it once litigated against.