UK to Approve Shell and Equinor's Jackdaw Gas Field in the North Sea on September 15

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 4, sources from the UK government stated that the Energy Secretary is expected to make a fresh approval decision on the Jackdaw gas condensate field in the North Sea on September 15. The UK government has not yet issued a formal approval document, and as of September 2, the project's status on the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero website remained listed as "Under Review." The current developer of Jackdaw is Adura Operations Limited, and the project still requires the Energy Secretary's consent for the development license, with the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) to make the final licensing decision.

Jackdaw is not in the stage of preparing for new drilling. According to Adura's latest project information, the field is located in UK Continental Shelf blocks 30/02a, 30/03a, and 30/02d, approximately 250 kilometers east of Aberdeen, at a water depth of about 78 meters. The development plan includes a normally unmanned wellhead platform and four wells, connected via a 31-kilometer pipeline to the existing Shearwater hub, with natural gas then transported through existing facilities to the St Fergus terminal in Scotland. The steel jacket was installed in August 2023, the 31-kilometer pipeline was laid in July 2024, the topside module was completed in October 2025, and drilling of the four wells was completed in early 2026.

The project previously received development consent in 2022, but in January 2025, a Scottish court ruled that the original environmental approval had not assessed the downstream greenhouse gas emissions from the eventual combustion of produced oil and gas, requiring the relevant decision to be redetermined. The court allowed preparatory construction work to continue, but no gas could be extracted from Jackdaw until a new lawful approval was granted. The UK government subsequently issued new environmental impact assessment guidance in June 2025, requiring new developments in licensed blocks to incorporate downstream Scope 3 emissions impacts into their approvals.

Under the new approval requirements, the Jackdaw developer submitted supplementary environmental information in 2025 and provided further data to the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning (OPRED) again in June 2026. The latest round of public consultation was launched on July 8 and concluded on August 10. The government project page shows that the Energy Secretary has received the project's supplementary environmental assessment, Scope 3 emissions assessment, and related public comments, and the project is currently awaiting a redetermined development consent decision.

Adura stated that the Jackdaw platform has entered the final preparation phase before startup, with plans to begin gas production this winter following the re-securing of regulatory approval. The company estimates that once operational, the field could contribute approximately 6% of UK North Sea gas production, equivalent to the fuel needs of around 1.4 million households. Jackdaw was added to Adura's portfolio in December 2025; Adura is jointly owned 50/50 by Shell and Equinor, consolidating the two companies' major offshore oil and gas assets in the UK.