Exclusive:The five North Sea oil and gas projects waiting in pipeline if Rosebank and Jackdaw given green light

The UK Labour government is poised to announce whether the Rosebank oil and Jackdaw gas projects will gain approval for environmental consent - with a determination for the latter thought to be "imminent".

But five key other projects, which are also awaiting environmental consent, are also now hoping positive decisions on Rosebank and Jackdaw will open the door to more drilling for fossil fuels in the North Sea, despite Labour’s licensing ban.

Rosebank and Jackdaw were initially approved by the previous Conservative UK government before the courts ruled the full environmental impacts of the fossil fuels drilled should be taken into account.

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Included in the five key pipeline projects behind Rosebank and Jackdaw is the Cambo oil field, which then first minister Nicola Sturgeon said ahead of Cop26 in Glasgow in 2021, should be blocked.

Alongside the Cambo project, being brought forward by Ithaca Energy, the company is also awaiting environmental approval for its Tornado project alongside Adura - the Shell and Equinor partnership behind the Rosebank and Jackdaw projects. Cambo, Rosebank and Tornado are all planned to be developed west of Shetland.

Serica Energy is awaiting environmental consent for its Kyla project around 200km southeast of Peterhead, while a joint venture by Neo Next and Energy Resources is seeking approval to press ahead with the Montrose infill project around 190km off the coast of Peterhead.

READ MORE: Failure to approve Rosebank and Jackdaw 'could cost UK economy £10.8 billion'

Petrogas’ Abbey and Baker project in the Southern North Sea, is also awaiting environmental consent.

The five projects awaiting a decision on Rosebank and Jackdaw and seeking their own consent all aim to begin production of oil and gas between 2027 and 2030. Adura, the company behind Rosebank and Jackdaw, has insisted that gas production at Jackdaw could begin as early as this winter.

Conservative shadow energy secretary, Andrew Bowie, said: “It is just common sense to approve Jackdaw and Rosebank for the sake of oil and gas jobs and our energy security.

“But Labour shouldn’t stop there. They should ditch their reckless ban on new licences and open up the North Sea for even more drilling.”

He added: “Instead of relying on costly imports from hostile regimes, we should be maximising our own resources at home.

“Andy Burnham should finally stop dithering, grant these projects and stand up for the oil and gas industry.”

The UK government has previously vowed it will allow so-called ‘tie-backs’, projects that can be linked to existing North Sea infrastructure. That compromise, after an appeal from the industry, is poised to be rolled out in the UK government’s energy independence bill - as is formalising in law the ban on new exploration licences.

Several of the five projects seeking environmental consent behind Rosebank and Jackdaw are tied to existing infrastructure and like the two high-profile projects, already have exploration licences.

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Ben Ward, market intelligence manager at Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), said: “Jackdaw and Rosebank are important projects for the UK’s future energy supply, but they sit within a much broader opportunity across the North Sea.

“Within existing licences, industry has identified a pipeline of 111 projects that could unlock £50 billion of private investment and 3.25 billion barrels of oil equivalent of domestic production.

“A stable, competitive fiscal and regulatory regime is essential to unlock these resources and sustain production at more than one million barrels of oil equivalent per day into the 2030s.”

But Mr Burnham’s government is facing pressure from trade unions and climate campaigners to block Rosebank and Jackdaw from proceeding. Climate scientists and the International Energy Agency have warned no new fossil fuels projects are consistent with efforts to cut harmful emissions.

Ten trade unions – between them representing millions of British workers – have banded together to call on Mr Burnham to reject the Rosebank proposals.

The unions, including Unison, the Public and Commercials Services Union, the actors’ union Equity and the Fire Brigades Union, are insistent that “the Labour government must do the right thing by the planet, UK communities and workers, and stop Rosebank”.

Unison general secretary Andrea Egan said that the UK government “needs to accept that the more fossil fuels we burn, the more extreme our weather will become”.

She added that public service workers – including those represented by Unison – are “on the frontline of extreme weather” and as such “need guarantees that the Government is serious about tackling climate change”.

Ms Egan added: “The Prime Minister must act in the best interests of the country and reject Rosebank.”

Friends of the Earth Scotland head of campaigns, Caroline Rance, said: “Approving Jackdaw or Rosebank risks opening the floodgates to even more climate wrecking projects in the North Sea.

“Make no mistake, new oil and gas will put more people in the UK in danger from heatwaves, fires and extreme weather. Tornado is a fitting name for a project that will inevitably bring widespread destruction.

“Oil companies have spent their record profits on a sustained campaign of political and media lobbying to pressure the government into ignoring the evidence of climate breakdown. It is a disgrace that politicians are even considering putting the profits of oil company shareholders and bosses above the safety of everyone else.”

She added: “Fossil fuel jobs are in terminal decline, so ministers should be creating a plan with oil workers that ensure their skills and experiences are at the heart of building the renewable energy system we need.

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“Both governments should be focused on climate solutions that improve lives and cut our use of fossil fuels. This means insulating leaky homes to cut energy bills, making buses and trains the quick and affordable option for more people and creating new careers in green industries that have a long-term future.”

Despite there being no timescale or limit to determine the Jackdaw and Rosebank projects, UK energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh has confirmed a decision on Jackdaw is "imminent".

But a decision on Rosebank, the largest untapped oil field in the North Sea, will take “a bit longer”, the minister told the Energy UK annual conference in London.

While Ms Fahnbulleh would not be drawn on what the decision on either project would be, she told delegates at the Energy UK conference: “We have got all the information on Jackdaw and my department has gone through that, so there is a decision that will be imminent.

“Rosebank will take a little bit longer,” she said, adding her first two months in the job had been dominated by the question and she wanted to make the decisions as quickly as possible.

But Ms Fahnbulleh also warned that, while oil and gas would be used for decades to come, the need for the transition to clean energy sources was “real and urgent”, pointing to the past summer of record heatwaves, droughts and wildfires as evidence of the need to tackle climate change.

A UK government spokesperson said: “The North Sea remains a vital national asset and oil and gas will continue to play an important role in our energy system for decades to come – alongside transitioning to clean power to protect jobs and tackle the climate crisis.

“Any decision will take into account all relevant evidence, including environmental assessments and public representations received during the consultation process.”