The UK Government will restart the approval process for North Sea fields today, according to reports.
Michael Shanks, the energy security minister, will be in Aberdeen this afternoon to announce the results of a government consultation which followed a legal challenge to Rosebank and Jackdaw.
The announcement is expected to set the tone for the future of production in UK, and one report this morning suggests a path is being cleared for the projects to go ahead.
The consultation was launched after a judge ruled that the permissions given to Equinor, the lead developer at Rosebank, and Shell, which is in charge of Jackdaw, were unlawful because they did not take into account the full scope of carbon emissions they would produce.
While he did not halt work, the judge ruled that the applications should have accounted for the carbon produced by burning the oil and gas produced at the fields, not just that produced by the drilling.
When Equinor and Shell reapply for consent, Mr Miliband is expected to play a quasi-judicial role in deciding whether to grant permission to begin drilling.
The Labour manifesto rules out granting new licences for new fields, but ministers say that does not apply to Rosebank and Jackdaw, which already have their licences and are now awaiting environmental consent to begin drilling.
Government sources say the Treasury is pushing hard to allow the new developments as it focuses the government’s economic policy on growth. But many Labour MPs want Mr Miliband to rule them out.
The new rules could lead to approval for many other such developments, potentially including the Cambo oil field controlled by Ithaca, which is also involved in Rosebank.
This is because the legal rulings that led to Rosebank and Jackdaw being blocked also froze development of many other UK fields whose licences had been issued under the same flawed assessment system. These are thought to include the next phase of BP’s giant Clair oil field and Serica Energy’s Buchan Horst field.
Martin Copeland, of Serica Energy, said he would welcome any such move by the Government.
“These legal rulings have caused a hiatus across the North Sea,” he told The Telegraph.
“It goes far wider than Rosebank and Jackdaw. There are many other smaller developments that have been held up, impacting the supply chain companies and all their workers.”