North Sea18 Mar 2022 12:25
Shell has submitted an amended plan to bring its Jackdaw gas field online after it was rejected by the UK regulator last year.
Shell faced “disappointment” for Jackdaw in October when the regulator OPRED decided not to sanction the scheme on environmental grounds.
At the time, North Sea boss Simon Roddy vowed Shell would “pick ourselves up from this” and find a way forward.
News of the updated plan comes as the UK Government is seeking ways to ramp up use of domestic supply in order to protect consumers from rising bills and wean the country off Russian gas.
Shell said Jackdaw provide 6.5% of UK gas at its peak, using just 1% of UK emissions, enough to provide heating to the equivalent of 1.4 million UK homes.
“This new Environmental Statement seeks to address OPRED’s feedback on Shell’s original Environmental Statement for the Jackdaw project, as communicated in October 2021, and reflects the improvements to the project and resulting shift in the project schedule,” Shell said.
Although much of OPRED’s decision was not disclosed, concerns were made clear around why Shell had chosen the Shearwater hub as the main option development for Jackdaw, rather than the slightly closer Harbour Energy Judy platform.
In this new plan, Shell has “assembled further evidence” on the viability of Judy, which it said “would not provide environmental benefit over the selection of Shearwater in any event, even if it were a reasonable alternative to Shearwater”.
Shell said that investment in the project is only possible due to “integrated value chain benefits” such as on Shearwater export infrastructure and onshore processing facilities at St Fergus and Mossmorran.
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