How much gas could Jackdaw provide? And will it cut your energy bills?

The government has approved drilling at the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea.

The decision - which comes after years of debate and legal challenges - will pave the way for gas to be extracted from it and used in Britain's gas network within weeks.

BBC Verify has looked at what this means for energy bills, energy security and the environment.

Jackdaw is a gas field 150 miles (241.4km) east of Aberdeen. It is owned by Adura Energy, which is itself equally owned by the energy companies Shell and Equinor.

The owners of the site, which was first approved four years ago but subject to legal delays until now, estimate Jackdaw has around 10 million cubic metres of recoverable gas.

Based on official forecasts for the amount of gas the UK will need over the next decade, that suggests Jackdaw has the potential to meet around 1.6% of total projected national gas demand between 2026 and 2036.

Operators say it could be connected to the Great British gas network within weeks and could produce gas for the next 11 years.

Around half of the UK's natural gas comes from its existing North Sea gas fields and is pumped ashore via pipelines.

Gas imports make up the remainder. Of these, most come from Norway's North Sea gas fields via separate pipelines.

But a higher share of the UK's gas imports now come in the form of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) compared to 20 years ago.

This is natural gas which is extracted, turned into liquid form and then transported by ship to the country which buys it, where it is turned back into gas form to be used as an energy source.

And the UK increasingly relies on shipments of LNG from the US, which accounted for a quarter of all natural gas imports in 2025.

Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh has said the gas from Jackdaw "won't lower energy bills this winter".

And most energy analysts do not expect the additional gas production from Jackdaw to have a significant, direct impact on households' energy bills, either.

This is because of the way natural gas markets work. Great Britain is integrated with wider European gas markets and physically linked to the continent through undersea pipelines.

Gas prices faced by British households and businesses are effectively set at a pan-European level and determined by the price customers across Europe are prepared to pay for the energy.

People across the continent have seen their energy bills rise significantly in recent years, fuelled by the wars in Ukraine and Iran affecting gas and oil supplies.

But the additional gas being pumped into the UK's system from Jackdaw will still be relatively small, and unlikely to significantly move the European price paid by British firms and households.

"Essentially, producing more British energy doesn't necessarily mean cheaper British energy," Karl Matikonis, professor of taxation at University College Dublin, told BBC Verify.

"North Sea oil and gas are sold at market prices rather than reserved for British consumers at a discount."

However, the additional production of gas from Jackdaw could result in more corporation tax revenues for the UK government, because any profits made by the owner would be taxable.

As part of its Jackdaw announcement, the government said it was setting up a new energy wealth fund, using tax revenues from North Sea oil and gas to invest in green energy projects. It said this would "help get bills down for good in the long term" by reducing the UK's reliance on gas for electricity production.

The Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has previously said the tax revenue from Jackdaw "could be used to bring down energy bills" more directly by taking costs of households' bills directly.

However, both proposals depend on the future profits of the owner of Jackdaw, which cannot be forecast with certainty.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said opening the gas field would "protect hundreds of jobs" and the move has been welcomed by unions.

The owner of Jackdaw has also estimated it will help support around 500 jobs, including roles on nearby production hubs, but only 27 direct roles on the Jackdaw gas extraction platform in the North Sea.

One of the key arguments put forward in favour of developing Jackdaw is that it would improve the UK's national energy security.

Energy experts take different views on this. Some suggest that if, for some reason, foreign LNG shipments were not able to reach the UK, having additional North Sea gas from Jackdaw available and delivered through a pipeline that the UK controls might prove valuable.

They argue that the reliability of the US as a source of energy has been put into question by Donald Trump's recent comments that he was considering banning exports of US diesel to European countries.

However, others are not convinced Jackdaw would make a significant difference to national energy security because the UK would remain heavily reliant on natural gas imports even when the field is up and running.

The enviromental impact of Jackdaw has also been a significant point of contention. Advocates argue the gas field would be beneficial because the carbon emissions arising from production from the the UK's own North Sea field will be lower than those arising from the production of US LNG.

The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), which regulates the sector, has estimated the emissions arising from the production, delivery and processing of US LNG are around three times higher than from the production of North Sea natural gas.

That is because the process of liquefying, shipping and then turning LNG back in to natural gas on arrival is extremely energy intensive, compared with pumping it ashore by a pipeline, creating higher carbon emissions.

However, NSTA estimates that Norwegian North Sea gas production - which Britain already imports by pipeline in large volumes - has a considerably lower average emissions impact than that of the UK's existing North Sea gas production.

This is because UK North Sea gas mostly comes from smaller fields and is extracted with older infrastructure and technology than those of Norway.

The owner of Jackdaw estimates the emissions intensity of its production would be lower than from older UK North Sea infrastructure - though it would still be higher than gas produced from Norwegian fields.

So the impact on the environment of the Jackdaw decision partly depends on what happens to the mix of UK gas consumption in future - and where it comes from - which is uncertain.

If additional gas production from Jackdaw displaces US LNG imports, UK-related national emissions could be lower than otherwise.

But if additional gas production from Jackdaw displaces gas imports from Norway instead then UK-related national emissions could be higher than otherwise.

It's important to bear in mind that the emissions from burning gas also greatly outweigh the emissions from producing it.

And analysts argue that if the Jackdaw decision ends up increasing the overall quantity of fossil fuels produced and consumed around the whole world then it will push up global emissions compared with what would otherwise have happened, even if UK-related emissions fell.

Jonathan Stern of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies told BBC Verify: "If what matters is global rather than UK-related emissions then any new fossil fuel development will increase emissions, because the Norwegian and US gas which might replace Jackdaw will probably be developed anyway."

However, the direct impact on global emissions would still be relatively small given the size of Jackdaw relative to existing global production and consumption of fossil fuels.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?