The government has approved drilling at the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea. The decision - which comes after years of debate and legal challenges - will pave the way for gas to be extracted from it and used in Britain's gas network within weeks. BBC Verify has looked at what this means for energy bills, energy security and the environment.
Jackdaw is a gas field 150 miles (241.4km) east of Aberdeen. It is owned by Adura Energy, which is itself equally owned by the energy companies Shell and Equinor. The owners of the site, which was first approved four years ago but subject to legal delays until now, estimate Jackdaw has around 10 million cubic metres of recoverable gas., external Based on official forecasts, external for the amount of gas the UK will need over the next decade, that suggests Jackdaw has the potential to meet around 1.6% of total projected national gas demand between 2026 and 2036.
Operators say it could be connected to the Great British gas network within weeks and could produce gas for the next 11 years. Around half of the UK's natural gas comes from its existing North Sea gas fields and is pumped ashore via pipelines. Gas imports, external make up the remainder.
Of these, most come from Norway's North Sea gas fields via separate pipelines. But a higher share of the UK's gas imports now come in the form of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) compared to 20 years ago. This is natural gas which is extracted, turned into liquid form and then transported by ship to the country which buys it, where it is turned back into gas form to be used as an energy source.
And the UK increasingly relies on shipments of LNG from the US, which accounted for a quarter of all natural gas imports in 2025, external. Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh has said the gas from Jackdaw "won't lower energy bills this winter". And most energy analysts do not expect the additional gas production from Jackdaw to have a significant, direct impact on households' energy bills, either.
This is because of the way natural gas markets work. Great Britain is integrated with wider European gas markets and physically linked to the continent through undersea pipelines. Gas prices faced by British households and businesses are effectively set at a pan-European level and determined by the price customers across Europe are prepared to pay for the energy.
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