Three oil and gas companies are set to concede that the UK government made a legal error in granting them licences for two major new offshore developments, at the start of a key case for future fossil fuel projects. However, the three — the oil major Shell, independent producer Ithaca and Norway’s Equinor — will all say they should be allowed to press on with the two projects, Rosebank in the north Atlantic and Jackdaw in the North Sea.
The cases will be closely watched for signs of how courts apply the Finch decision — which involved an onshore oil development — to offshore oil and gas. Shell is expected to concede that the approval of Jackdaw, in 2022, was “unlawful”. Equinor is likely to admit it was an “error in law” for the government to ignore the end-use emissions when it approved Rosebank in 2023. Ithaca, meanwhile, is expected to accept it cannot defend the original approval process.