Legal challenge to oil field approvals gets under way with first submission

A legal challenge over decisions to approve new oil and gas fields in Scottish waters has formally begun at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, with its first submission heard on Tuesday morning.

Greenpeace and Uplift have jointly raised a judicial review arguing consent for the Rosebank oil field north-west of Shetland and the Jackdaw oil field off Aberdeen ought to be paused and reassessed.

The former Conservative-led UK government approved Shell’s proposals to develop the Jackdaw field in 2022 and cleared Equinor and Ithaca Energy’s plans to drill in the Rosebank field last September.

The two environmental groups argue the UK Government, along with the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), failed to consider the full impact of emissions caused by burning oil and gas from the fields.

They also argue their reasons for approving the schemes were not transparent, and the development would disrupt a marine protected area.

Ruth Crawford KC, representing Greenpeace UK, told the court this morning a “substantive error of law” had been made when consent was granted for the two schemes based on limited information on their environmental impact and that the charity was seeking “remedy”.

“It was not simply a matter of discretion on whether or not to take emissions into account, it is a matter of the law the impact of emissions had to be taken into account,” she said.

Ms Crawford argued for both developments to be paused and for the oil companies involved in the projects to be made to submit revised environmental impact assessments.

She said these assessments should include consideration of so-called Scope 3 emissions which would be produced by burning all the oil and gas to be extracted from the fields.

Shell said Jackdaw is a “vital project for UK energy security” and will provide enough fuel to heat 1.4 UK million homes.

Equinor has similarly said Rosebank is “vital for the UK” in terms of local investment, jobs and energy security.

The case, before Lord Ericht, continues.