A fresh decision on Rosebank and Jackdaw will now be made by Labour Energy Secretary Ed MIliband.
LONDON — The Scottish High Court quashed decisions by the British government to approve drilling in two vast North Sea oil and gas fields after legal challenges from environmental campaigners.
Fresh decisions on whether to drill in the two fields, Rosebank and Jackdaw, will now have to be made by regulators and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, whose Labour administration succeeded the Conservatives who pushed the initial decision.
Greenpeace and anti-fossil fuel group Uplift presented three legal challenges against the two fields in Edinburgh’s Court of Session last November.
Rosebank is a joint venture between oil and gas giants Equinor and Ithaca, while Jackdaw is owned by Shell.
In a decision handed down Thursday, the judge, Andrew Stewart, determined the initial approvals were unlawful, as they did not consider carbon emissions from the use of oil and gas produced at both prospective sites — so-called downstream emissions.
His opinion said: “The public interest in authorities acting lawfully and the private interest of members of the public in climate change outweigh the private interest of the developers.
« The factors advanced by Shell, Equinor and Ithaca in respect of their private interest do not justify the departure on equitable grounds from the normal remedy of reduction [quashing] of an unlawful decision.”
It follows the U.K. Supreme Court ruling last June that environmental impact assessments had to include this information on an oil well project in Surrey, setting a new precedent for developers.
The future of both fields will now be decided by Energy Secretary Miliband and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. The projects will also go through the regulatory process again, including assessments from the North Sea Transition Authority, before Miliband makes a final call.
The Labour government has banned issuing new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea. Ministers accepted that approving Rosebank and Jackdaw were unlawful on environmental grounds and withdrew from the case before today’s verdict.
A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: “We will respond to this consultation as soon as possible and developers will be able to apply for consents under this revised regime.
“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.”
