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Andy Burnham faces climate revolt after approval of North Sea gas drilling

Jackdaw gasfield announcement signals UK’s commitment to North Sea industry but undermines green credentials

The Jackdaw gasfield will be given the go-ahead on Wednesday, signalling Andy Burnham’s commitment to the North Sea fossil fuel industry and threatening to trigger a row with climate campaigners and Labour MPs.

Miatta Fahnbulleh and John Healey, the energy secretary and chancellor respectively, will make the announcement from Aberdeen on Wednesday morning after more than a year of deliberations over whether doing so would violate the UK’s climate commitments.

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© Photograph: Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty Images

North Sea strikes could severely disrupt UK fuel supplies, union warns

More than ⁠160 ​offshore rig workers plan walkout amid rising tensions between unions and oil companies

North Sea workers are preparing to strike at oil rigs across the ageing basin over the coming weeks in a sign of growing tensions between trade unions and oil companies.

The Unite union said on ⁠Monday that more than ⁠160 ​offshore rig workers would take part ⁠in a 24-hour ​strike from Wednesday that could “severely disrupt” UK fuel supplies.

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© Photograph: Martin Langer/Alamy

© Photograph: Martin Langer/Alamy

© Photograph: Martin Langer/Alamy

Electricity costs put UK steelmakers in worst position in three years against EU rivals

19 October 2026 at 00:01

Premium paid over French counterparts has risen to almost £30 a megawatt hour, analysis by lobby group finds

British steelmakers have been pushed further behind European rivals on electricity costs after the US-Israeli war on Iran caused a surge in global gas prices.

The premium paid by the British industry over its French counterpart has risen to almost £30 a megawatt hour (MWh), its highest level in three years, according to analysis by the lobby group UK Steel.

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© Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

© Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

© Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

Electricity costs put UK steelmakers in worst position in three years against EU rivals

19 October 2026 at 00:01

Premium paid over French counterparts has risen to almost £30 a megawatt hour, analysis by lobby group finds

British steelmakers have been pushed further behind European rivals on electricity costs after the US-Israeli war on Iran caused a surge in global gas prices.

The premium paid by the British industry over its French counterpart has risen to almost £30 a megawatt hour (MWh), its highest level in three years, according to analysis by the lobby group UK Steel.

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© Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

© Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

© Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

Microsoft pulls out of AI datacentre project in Essex over power supply concerns

18 October 2026 at 14:05

Development by UK firm Nscale heralded by ministers as largest of its kind in country loses anchor tenant

The development of a huge AI datacentre hailed by the UK government has received a fresh setback after Microsoft pulled out of the project over concerns about power supplies.

The development by the British company Nscale, heralded by ministers as the country’s largest AI datacentre when it was announced in 2025, was planned to open at Loughton in Essex next year.

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© Photograph: Nscale

© Photograph: Nscale

© Photograph: Nscale

‘From liabilities to goldmines’: refineries eye record profits from diesel shortage

Firms turning crude oil into the ‘workhorse’ fuel stand to gain most despite economic fallout from record prices

Days after Donald Trump announced a deal to import Russian diesel into the US in an effort to lower soaring pump prices, the world’s energy watchdog has warned that the global fuel shortage will drag into 2027.

Trump’s temporary sanctions reprieve was criticised for offering “too little, too late” to temper the sky high pump prices triggered by the shutdown of war-damaged refineries in the Middle East and Russia – once the world’s second-largest diesel exporter behind the US.

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© Photograph: Martin Meissner/AP

© Photograph: Martin Meissner/AP

© Photograph: Martin Meissner/AP

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