The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) has granted development and production consent for the Jackdaw field off the coast of northeast Scotland to Adura, following the SoS’ consideration of the company’s environmental statement and agreement to the grant of consent.
Stuart Payn, NSTA’s Chief Executive, commented: “After robust scrutiny we have today granted consent for the Jackdaw field development which allows the owners to proceed with their project and produce gas from the field upon completion of development work.
“This project will support the UK’s energy security by providing domestically produced gas, generate tax revenues, safeguard supply chain jobs, use existing infrastructure, and have an emissions intensity well below the UK average.”
Jackdaw has the potential to deliver around 6% of projected UK North Sea gas production, which is considered to be enough fuel to heat the equivalent of 1.4 million homes at a time when older gas fields are reaching the end of their production.
Payn added: “Now is the time to move forward at pace and we welcome the government’s approval in allowing us permission to consider a small number of new out of round licences ahead of forthcoming legislation.”
The field, located approximately 250 kilometers east of Aberdeen, is expected to be among the lowest-emission developments on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS), while supporting jobs and bolstering Britain’s energy security.
Previously, the NSTA gave consent on June 1, 2022, to develop the Jackdaw project after the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment & Decommissioning (OPRED) agreed to the grant of consent for the development following an assessment of the environmental impacts of the project.
However, Greenpeace asked the Scottish Court to review the grant of consent and OPRED’s agreement to the grant of consent in relation to the planning application and the need to consider not only the emissions from the platform’s operations but also the emissions when the gas is used by customers.
The UK Supreme Court issued a judgment in a case referred to as ‘Finch’ in 2024, regarding a proposed oil well in Surrey that was approved by the local council in 2019, ruling that the approval should also have considered the emissions produced by the oil’s end use as well as those emissions caused by the oil well’s operations.
Afterward, the Court of Session in Edinburgh ruled on January 30, 2025, that the previous government’s decision to approve the Jackdaw and Rosebank oil fields was unlawful. As a result, the court overturned the decision, accepting Uplift’s argument that the government failed to consider the emissions that would be caused by burning the oil and gas produced by these fields when it approved them.
