Under a few hundred meters of cold Atlantic water west of the Shetland Islands is one of the UK’s largest untapped oil and gas reserves. That spot hasn’t been drilled yet. Which brings us to the most politically charged question in British energy policy right now: will anyone ever?
It’s called Rosebank Field. You can also find Jackdaw, a gas field off the coast of Aberdeenshire. These two projects have been used as stand-ins for a much bigger argument that has to do with climate science, energy bills, geopolitics, and now the first few days of a new prime minister’s term.
Reports said that Andy Burnham might support new drilling in the North Sea soon after he moved into Downing Street in July 2026. The response was quick and harsh. Trade unions saw a chance. There was betrayal by environmental groups. It looks like Donald Trump was happy. It only took 24 hours for Deputy Leader Lucy Powell to walk the whole thing back on the BBC. That kind of political whiplash—a story, a denial, and a cloud of doubt that won’t go away—shows how really hard this issue has become.
Take a step back and look at how Rosebank and Jackdaw got to where they are now. The last Conservative government gave permission for development in both fields in 2022 and 2023. Then, in 2025, environmental groups Uplift and Greenpeace were able to overturn those approvals through the courts. The courts said that the environmental review did not take into account downstream emissions, which are the carbon emissions that happen when the extracted fuel is burned. So far, no government has been willing to give new production permission, so both projects are back to the drawing board.
The situation is even more complicated by the fact that neither field really needs a new exploration license. There are already licenses in place to look for reserves. There isn’t the separate regulatory sign-off that is needed before any extraction or sale can happen. People often think of “new drilling” and “new licenses” as the same thing, but they are not. This difference gets lost in public debate.
As of 2021, Andrea Sanchez Quiroz has been a part of the Stop Rosebank campaign. She is a mother of three and has lived in Shetland since 2020. She is concerned about the Faroe-Shetland sponge belt, a protected marine habitat in the area, as well as the effects on the climate of releasing new fossil fuel reserves. She doesn’t have a complicated view: she thinks the answer has to be no at some point. For her, that time is now.
Of course, the business world has a different view. Offshore Energies UK has said that making gas in the UK is better for the economy and the environment than shipping liquefied natural gas in from other countries. They say that the UK will need oil and gas for decades to come, no matter what. The only question is whether that energy comes from workers in the UK who follow UK environmental rules or from further away where there are fewer rules. Your point is valid, even though it doesn’t fit well with the climate goals.
Based on what we’ve seen, Britain still doesn’t seem to have decided what kind of energy story it wants to tell. Oil from the North Sea helped the country become very wealthy in modern times. The money coming in was real. The jobs were real. The fields are still there, waiting in silence. The climate debate, on the other hand, has changed the terms of that relationship in ways that can’t be avoided. The tension doesn’t go away, even if Burnham ends up supporting Rosebank or staying away from it. It just moves to the next government and the one after that.
