Rosebank and Jackdaw permissions 'unlawful', Scottish court rules

Consent for two oil and gas fields off Scotland's coast was unlawful, Scotland's highest civil court has ruled.

Campaigners challenged the UK Government on its permissions for the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields.

In a written ruling, judge Lord Ericht said the green light was given unlawfully and the owners of the fields must reapply to the government before any drilling can take place.

The decision follows a case brought to the Court of Session by the Uplift and Greenpeace campaign groups.

Rosebank, off the coast of Shetland, is the UK's largest known untapped oilfield and has been the subject of significant protest. 

Majority owned by Norwegian state-owned Equinor, its development was approved in 2023, with Shell's smaller Jackdaw gas field approved in 2022.

Challengers said the decisions had not taken into account the carbon emissions that would be produced by the burning of any oil and gas extracted. 

Uplift's Tessa Khan said the ruling "means that Rosebank cannot go ahead without accounting for its enormous climate harm".

Khan said: "The climate science is crystal clear that we can't create new oil and gas fields if we're going to stay within safe climate thresholds."

The UK Government, which declined to defend the case in court, said a consultation on how to calculate downstream emissions is expected to conclude in spring.

Climate secretary Ed Miliband has stopped the approval of licenses for any new oil and gas fields, following a Labour manifesto commitment, but already-awarded licenses are to be honoured. The UK Government withdraw from defending this court case and the decision on whether fresh licenses for Rosebank and Jackdaw could be approved now lies with Miliband.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: "Our priority is to deliver a fair, orderly and prosperous transition in the North Sea in line with our climate and legal obligations, which drives towards our clean energy future of energy security, lower bills, and good, long-term jobs."

Shell called for government action to grant fresh approval for Jackdaw, saying the ruling "rightly allows work to progress on this nationally-important energy project while new consents are sought".

Equinor said it would work closely with government and described Rosebank as "critical for the UK's economic growth".

Scottish Greens climate spokesperson Mark Ruskell said: "There is no safe level of new drilling. Labour must turn its attention to the dozens of exploration licences that their Tory predecessors issued and review them all in light of this decision."

In contrast, Scottish Conservative shadow secretary for net zero and energy Douglas Lumsden said: "Labour abandoned tens of thousands of highly-skilled workers by refusing to defend this case. They must now belatedly show some common sense and back the sector."

First Minister John Swinney said the Scottish Government would reflect on the "very significant" ruling. He said: "We've always said there has to be a deep understanding of the climate implications of any decision of this type, and the court essentially has taken a decision that recognises the importance of that point."

When asked if his government should "get off the fence" on the issue, he said he would "look at this court judgment and see what its implications are for the policy position of the Scottish Government".