Britain approved production at the Jackdaw gas field on Oct. 21 after assessing emissions from burning its fuel, an omission that caused a Scottish court to overturn the project’s earlier consent.
The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) granted development and production consent after Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh agreed to the decision on Oct. 14. The court quashed the previous consent in January 2025 because the environmental review had excluded emissions from the gas’s eventual use.
Fahnbulleh’s decision estimates about 36.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent over the project’s life in a high-production scenario. The scenario has a 10% probability of being met or exceeded and assumes all extracted hydrocarbons, including gas and byproducts, are burned. Fahnbulleh found the greenhouse gas effect significant but concluded Jackdaw would not keep Britain from meeting its carbon budgets or its 2050 net-zero target.
Adura Operations Limited, an equally owned venture between Shell and Equinor, operates the field. It completed drilling four wells in February 2026. Jackdaw already had a license, but the NSTA says gas can be produced once development work is complete. The government expects supplies to begin as early as the end of October.
The government projects that Jackdaw will increase UK domestic gas production by about 6% at its peak and produce for up to 11 years. Fahnbulleh expects a small contribution to supply security, while the field’s expected effect on household bills is limited because energy prices largely reflect international markets.
Adura estimates the project will create 27 direct jobs, protect 273 existing jobs and add about £2.9 billion to the UK economy. Climate campaign group Uplift estimates Jackdaw would meet about 2% of UK gas demand on average over roughly a decade, even under its optimistic assumption that none of the gas is exported. That demand estimate covers years of production; the government’s 6% figure describes domestic output at its peak.
Rosebank remains in a separate approval process, Adura said. Its Jackdaw statement gave no date for a Rosebank decision.
