Adura has secured fresh consent for the Jackdaw gas field, allowing the North Sea development to proceed towards production after its earlier approvals were challenged over the treatment of downstream emissions.
The North Sea Transition Authority confirmed the decision on 21 October 2026, following the Energy Secretary’s agreement to the grant of consent after reviewing the environmental information. Adura, the operator, is a joint venture between Shell and Equinor.
In the government’s Jackdaw approval announcement, NSTA chief executive Stuart Payne said the consent would allow gas extraction once development work was complete. The government said supplies could begin as early as the end of October.
Much of the offshore installation programme has already been carried out. According to Adura, the jacket was installed in August 2023, followed by pipeline laying in July 2024 and topsides installation in October 2025. Drilling finished in early 2026.
Jackdaw is a gas and condensate development approximately 250 km east of Aberdeen, in about 78 metres of water. It occupies UK Continental Shelf blocks 30/02a, 30/03a and 30/02d, near the boundary with Norway and approximately 30 km southeast of Shearwater.
The development uses a wellhead platform designed to operate without a permanent crew, with four wells connected to the Shearwater hub by a subsea pipeline. Existing infrastructure will carry gas ashore at St Fergus in Aberdeenshire.
Adura estimates that Jackdaw could account for about 6% of projected UK North Sea gas output, equivalent to the fuel needed to heat approximately 1.4 million homes. Payne said the project would support domestic supply, tax receipts and supply-chain employment while using existing infrastructure. He also said its emissions intensity would be below the UK average.
The fresh decision follows the legal challenge to Jackdaw’s original consent, issued on 1 June 2022. Greenpeace challenged the approval because the environmental assessment had not accounted for emissions generated when customers burned the gas.
The Supreme Court’s 2024 Finch judgment established that the environmental assessment of an oil project in Surrey should have included emissions from using the extracted oil. In January 2025, Scotland’s Court of Session ordered the earlier Jackdaw and Rosebank consent decisions to be set aside.
The court suspended the effect of those orders pending fresh decisions, permitting development work to continue but prohibiting extraction in the meantime. Greenpeace brought proceedings concerning both projects, while Uplift’s petition concerned Rosebank.
The government subsequently issued guidance on assessing downstream emissions, and Adura submitted additional environmental information for Jackdaw. That material underwent public consultation before the latest decision.
Opposition from environmental campaigners continues. Reuters reported that campaigners argue approval of new fossil fuel projects conflicts with the government’s climate pledges.
The approval applies to Jackdaw. A decision on the separate Rosebank development remains pending, according to ITV News.
