By Sam Tobin
LONDON (Reuters) – Shell and Equinor urged a Scottish court on Tuesday to uphold British approval for the development of two vast oil and gas fields in the North Sea, as environmental campaigners sought to block the projects.
Shell is fighting a legal challenge brought by Greenpeace at the Court of Session in Edinburgh over Britain’s approval of the Jackdaw gas field in 2022.
Norway’s Equinor and its partner Ithaca Energy are also opposing a linked case over the 2023 decision to greenlight its planned Rosebank oil field.
The first day of the hearing began after Shell won an appeal in the Netherlands against a landmark ruling requiring it to accelerate carbon reduction efforts.
It also came as TotalEnergies opposed a separate legal challenge at the High Court in London over new oil and gas exploration licences.
Britain announced in August that it would not defend the Greenpeace case after a landmark ruling by the UK Supreme Court this summer, which has led the government to abandon its opposition in other cases.
The Supreme Court has ruled that planning authorities must consider the impact of burning fossil fuels, rather than simply extracting them, when deciding whether to approve projects.
Lawyers for Greenpeace said in papers filed at the High Court that approving the Jackdaw and Rosebank projects was illegal as it did not take into account subsequent emissions.
Shell, Equinor and Ithaca are fighting the challenges.
Shell, which says the Jackdaw gas field will provide enough fuel to heat 1.4 million homes, said stopping the project would be complex as the infrastructure is in place and drilling has begun.
“We accept the Supreme Court’s ruling… but our position is that Jackdaw is a vital project for the UK’s energy security and the project is already well advanced,” a spokesperson said.
Equinor declined to comment on the case, but a spokesperson said Rosebank was “vital to the UK”. Ithaca did not respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Mark Potter)