McCulloch said: “If I were the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, I’d be looking closely at where’s my next source of energy security, and you’re standing on it.
“The wells are drilled, they’re hooked up. We’re just readying the systems. It will be ready for the 1st of October.
“Jackdaw will play a vital part of this winter’s gas supply,” he added, providing energy security, employment and taxation to the UK.
Environmentalists say Jackdaw will only produce two per cent of the country’s annual gas demand during the lifetime of the field.
“It would be a huge betrayal of the British public for the UK government to approve new oil and gas fields at a time when ordinary people are suffering so much as a result of these record-breaking heatwaves,” said Tessa Khan, executive director of the campaign group, Uplift.
In response McCulloch said: “So we all watch the same news, and we see that.
“But what we’re saying is that Jackdaw should not take that on its shoulders, or it should take a very small portion of that.
“It’s a very, very small proportion of the total global emissions.”