PRIME Minister Andy Burnham was urged not to “cave in to fossil fuel company pressure” today following reports that ministers will approve the Jackdaw gas field as soon as this month.

Government sources said that the project off the coast of Aberdeen would soon be given the green light.

Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh is also likely to approve the Rosebank oil field in the coming months, according to the Guardian.

Both projects were approved by the last Tory government but were struck down by the courts after a challenge from environmental campaigners, with ministers told they had not fully considered their environmental impact.

Asked if approval of Jackdaw was imminent, a No 10 spokeswoman told reporters: “I don’t have an update for you basically. It’s a quasi-judicial decision.”

Friends of the Earth Scotland warned that the burning of more fossil fuels would worsen extreme climate change-related events such as heatwaves.

Caroline Rance, head of campaigns for the group, said: “New fossil fuels means deadly new climate disasters like the devastating floods in Nepal or the extreme heatwaves that have killed nearly 3,000 people in the UK this summer.”

Environmental group Uplift’s executive director Tessa Khan said further drilling in the North Sea would “do nothing” to cut energy bills in Britain and make “no meaningful difference to UK energy supply.”

Britain has now burned most of its gas and the majority of what’s left in the basin is oil, which is largely exported,” she said, adding Jackdaw could at best provide at most 2 per cent of Britain’s gas demand over its roughly 10-year lifetime.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: “We do not comment on speculation.”