Decisions on Rosebank and Jackdaw Oil and Gas Fields Await Approval
At a glance
- Prime Minister Burnham stated decisions on Rosebank and Jackdaw are pending.
- Licences for both fields were previously ruled unlawful by a court.
- Regulatory processes are ongoing under the North Sea Transition Authority.
Government consideration of the Rosebank oil field and Jackdaw gas field approvals is ongoing, with final decisions yet to be announced. These projects have been subject to renewed regulatory scrutiny following previous legal and procedural developments.
During Prime Minister’s Questions on 14 October 2026, Prime Minister Andy Burnham stated that decisions regarding the Rosebank and Jackdaw projects would be made soon. The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, urged the Prime Minister to move forward with approvals for both fields during the same session.
Licences for the Rosebank and Jackdaw developments were initially granted by the Conservative government in 2022 and 2023. However, the Court of Session in Edinburgh later ruled these licences unlawful, citing the failure to account for environmental impacts from burning the hydrocarbons extracted from these sites.
In June 2025, the government released updated guidance to comply with the Finch judgment. This guidance requires that environmental impact assessments for oil and gas projects include emissions from the end-use combustion of the extracted hydrocarbons, known as Scope 3 emissions. Following this change, the application process was reopened, and public notice periods for the Jackdaw and Rosebank projects closed in August 2026.
What the numbers show
- Licences for Rosebank and Jackdaw were granted in 2022 and 2023.
- Supplementary guidance was published in June 2025.
- Public notice periods ended on 10 and 17 August 2026 for Jackdaw and Rosebank.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero confirmed on 14 September 2026 that the Rosebank and Jackdaw projects are currently progressing through the regulatory process. According to the department, the North Sea Transition Authority holds responsibility for making the final consenting decisions on these developments.
Both oil and gas fields have been at the center of regulatory changes following the court ruling and the introduction of new environmental assessment requirements. The updated process aims to ensure that all relevant environmental impacts, including those from the eventual use of the extracted resources, are considered before any final decision is reached.
As of mid-October 2026, the government has not announced a timeline for when the final decisions on the Rosebank and Jackdaw projects will be made. The projects remain under review as part of the established regulatory framework.
* This article is based on publicly available information at the time of writing.