The government will not defend the legal challenges brought against plans to develop the UK’s largest untapped oil and gas field and a second North Sea site.

Rosebank, 80 miles west of Shetland, contains around 300 million barrels of oil and is the UK’s last major undeveloped oil site.

It is twice the size of the controversial Cambo oil field.

Jackdaw, another untapped oil site, is 150 miles east of Aberdeen.

Legal claims against developing the sites for oil had been brought by environmental campaign groups Greenpeace and Uplift.

Policy changing

On Thursday, the government confirmed it would now not contest these legal claims by green groups.

It follows a landmark Supreme Court decision in June which said the environmental impact of emissions from burning fossil fuels must be considered in planning applications for extraction projects – not just the emissions produced in extraction.

Last month the new government admitted the decision to approve a new coal mine in West Cumbria was unlawful, as the carbon emissions from eventually burning the coal should have been taken into account.

The International Energy Agency has said no new fossil fuel project is compatible with the globally accepted goal of limiting warming to 1.5C.

What next?

It’s still possible for developers hoping to drill at the sites, energy giants Shell for Jackdaw and Equinor for Rosebank, to continue to defend the claims.

The exploration licences granted for oil and gas extraction at the sites have also not been revoked by the government.

In reaction to the announcement Greenpeace’s UK climate team leader Mel Evans said:

“This is absolutely the right decision from the government. These permits should never have been granted without being properly assessed for their impact on the climate, and following the Supreme Court ruling earlier this year, conceding these cases is the logical course of action.”

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Shell and Equinor have been contacted for comment.

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