Shell commits to North Sea's Jackdaw gas project

Offshore staff

LONDON — Shell U.K. affiliate BG International has taken the final investment decision to develop the Jackdaw gas field in the central UK North Sea, having received regulatory approval earlier this year.

Plans call for a not permanently attended wellhead platform on the field, four production wells and a 31-km subsea pipeline from the Jackdaw WHP to the Shearwater gas hub.

Production should start in the mid-2020s. At peak (40,000 boe/d), Jackdaw could supply more than 6% of projected UK North Sea gas production, with operational emissions of less than 1% of the entire UK basin, Shell claimed.

The UK supply chain should benefit from hundreds of millions of pounds of investments associated with the construction, the company added.

According to Shell, new projects such as Jackdaw will help ensure the overall decline in UK North Sea production is gradual rather than too steep, matching weakening hydrocarbon demand as the energy transition takes effect.

Jackdaw is on the UK/Norway median line, 250 km east of Aberdeen.

The gas will land at the St Fergus terminal, eastern Scotland, where Shell is participating in the development of the Acorn Carbon Capture and Storage project, which targets sequestration of CO₂ from industrial clusters in Scotland, the UK and northern Europe.

Acorn could also reform natural gas into low-carbon hydrogen by capturing and storing the CO₂.

Jackdaw is part of Shell U.K.’s broader intention to invest £20 billion to £25 billion (US$24 billion to $30 billion) in the UK energy system in the next decade, subject to board approval and a stable UK fiscal policy.

07.25.2022