Skip to content
Sign in
Energy · Global

Labour approves Jackdaw gas project after legal challenge

Labour ministers approved the Jackdaw North Sea gas project after a legal challenge delayed a decision on whether drilling should proceed. The project is expected to raise domestic gas production by around 6 per cent at its peak, while WWF called the decision disappointing and urged the Government to reject the Rosebank oil field.

AI-assisted synthesis · Based on 4 independent reports from 5 outlets · Article text read from 1 of 4 reportsHow it's made

View timeline · 8 entries
5 outlets2 regionsLatest reporting 3 min read
Coverage: Too few ratedL 0 · C 0 · R 1 · 4 unrated

What happened

Key facts

  • The UK Government approved drilling at the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea (per dailymail.com, thescottishsun.co.uk).
  • The previous Conservative government approved the Jackdaw project in 2022, but a Greenpeace legal challenge delayed it (per dailymail.com).
  • Labour ministers had to decide whether drilling at the site should proceed (per dailymail.com).
  • The project is expected to increase domestic gas production by around 6 per cent at its peak (per dailymail.com).
  • The project is expected to safeguard hundreds of jobs and provide an estimated £2.9 billion economic boost (per dailymail.com).
  • The Energy Secretary said the project would make no difference to energy bills (per dailymail.com).
  • The industry's own assessment said the project would create 27 jobs (per dailymail.com).

The brief

The UK Government has approved drilling at the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea, after a legal challenge delayed the project and left Labour ministers to decide whether it should proceed. The Scottish Sun’s headline also identifies the approved project as Jackdaw and locates the field off Scotland’s coast.

The project had previously received approval from the Conservative government in 2022. Greenpeace then brought a legal challenge, delaying progress and shifting the decision over whether drilling should go ahead to Labour ministers, according to the Daily Mail.

Downing Street’s position is that a 2024 manifesto pledge against new North Sea developments does not cover Jackdaw because the site had already been earmarked. The Daily Mail says the project is expected to increase domestic gas production by around 6 per cent at its peak, safeguard hundreds of jobs and generate an estimated £2.9 billion economic boost.

The employment estimate is contested within the account: the project is described as safeguarding hundreds of jobs, while the industry’s own assessment is given as a forecast of 27 jobs created. The Daily Mail also reports that the Energy Secretary said the project would make no difference to energy bills.

Kate Norgrove, WWF’s chief impact officer, called the approval disappointing. She urged the Government to demonstrate its commitment to the clean-energy transition by rejecting the Rosebank oil field, which she described as more damaging. Her remarks set out WWF’s opposition to the decision and its separate call concerning Rosebank.

Headlines from the Stratford Observer and Leamington Observer describe rising energy prices as putting pressure on the Government; the Conservative Post says energy prices are soaring. Those headlines also characterize the decision as a green light for North Sea gas drilling.

The Daily Mail’s account, meanwhile, records Downing Street’s explanation of why the manifesto pledge does not apply, alongside the Energy Secretary’s statement on bills and the project’s expected production and economic figures.

Why it matters

  • The project is expected to increase domestic gas production by around 6 per cent at its peak, according to the Daily Mail.
  • The project’s employment figures differ in scope: the account describes hundreds of jobs being safeguarded and an industry estimate of 27 jobs created.
  • The project is estimated to provide a £2.9 billion economic boost, while the Energy Secretary said it would make no difference to energy bills.
  • WWF’s Kate Norgrove opposes the approval and urged the Government to reject Rosebank, which she characterized as more damaging.

What to watch next

  • Whether the Government acts on Kate Norgrove’s call to reject the Rosebank oil field.
  • Whether the expected domestic gas production increase of around 6 per cent at Jackdaw’s peak is realized.
  • How the project’s employment outcomes compare with the account’s figures of hundreds of jobs safeguarded and 27 jobs forecast to be created.

How it's being covered

Coverage analysisShow details
6 source articles · 5 unique outlets · 4 distinct reports
Outlet political mix: Too few rated· 1 Right · 4 unrated
Where the outlets are based: Europe 80% · US/Canada 20%
Outlet political mix
Too few rated
Left
Center
Right
0 outlets
0 outlets
1 outlet
The marker shows coverage balance: each unique outlet counts once. 4 unrated outlets are not included.
Geography
Where the outlets covering this story are based.
5 unique outletsDominant coverage: Europe
Coverage imbalance
  • Coverage is currently concentrated among outlets based in Europe (4 of 5 geographically-identified sources).
How we measure coverage

How outlets' accounts compare

Updat3 does not yet have enough full reports to compare how outlets framed this story.

Timeline

Developments from this story's sources, dated background we compiled and fact-checked, and our earlier coverage. Each row says which.
  1. Parliament passed the Petroleum Act, consolidating UK rules for offshore oil and gas licensing and regulation.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  2. Parliament passed the Climate Change Act, establishing a legally binding framework for reducing UK greenhouse-gas emissions.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  3. The UK brought the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations into force for assessing environmental effects of certain projects.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  4. The previous Conservative government approved the Jackdaw project in 2022, but a Greenpeace legal challenge delayed it.
    Reported in this story's sourcesSource:dailymail.com
  5. The UK government approved the Rosebank oil and gas project.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  6. In May 2024, the UK Supreme Court ruled in the Finch case that environmental assessments for oil projects must include emissions from burning the extracted fuel.
    Background · from our historical context
  7. The Supreme Court ruled in Finch that environmental assessments for oil and gas projects must consider emissions from burning extracted fuel.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3
  8. A legal challenge halted the previous government’s approval of the Jackdaw project.
    Background · compiled and fact-checked by Updat3

How we got here

The UK’s Climate Change Act 2008 set a statutory framework for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions; Parliament later amended it to require net zero emissions by 2050. The 2015 Paris Agreement added the UK’s international commitment to limit warming, but neither framework automatically bans new oil and gas projects.

For Jackdaw, the immediate issue became whether the project’s climate effects had been assessed adequately before approval. In June 2022, the Conservative government approved Shell’s Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea. In May 2024, the UK Supreme Court ruled in the Finch case that environmental assessments for oil projects must include emissions from burning the extracted fuel.

Original sources

6 articles from 5 outlets

Every story links to the reporting it was built from. How we choose sources

Spotted a factual error, a broken link or a misleading summary? Tell us.