The High Court has upheld oil and gas licences but makes clear that the government must address ocean harms as licences progress.

Oceana’s legal case challenging 28 oil and gas licences, granted in May 2024, laid bare their marine impacts and the strong objections from the government’s own nature advisory body. 

Whilst concluding the licences were granted lawfully, the judge highlighted that the government must scrutinise the environmental impacts of these licences at every stage of approvals including if companies apply for them to become fully producing oil fields.

This isn’t the end of the fight: the government still has the power to stop these licences, and others like them, from ever turning into more oil and gas extraction. It can refuse consent for major new fields, like Rosebank, putting a stop to massive emissions and further damage to ocean wildlife and habitats. We need to hold the government’s feet to the fire to make sure it makes the right decision for the future of our seas and climate. 

Let’s keep fighting until our seas are protected: join our calls for no new fields.