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I don't think Scotland needed or likely sought Obama's approval or blessing. Other than strongly express disapproval, what exactly could Obama have done to stop the release?

According to the American Spectator,Obama didn't even express "strong disapproval":

British intelligence and Foreign Office officials were surprised by what they called the "seeming lack of enthusiasm" by the Obama administration in the run-up to the release of convicted Libyan terrorist Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the man responsible for the murder of more than 270 passengers on Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988.
"We know that [Attorney General Eric] Holder and [Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton weighed in with the Scottish justice ministry, but we expected more, particularly given the circumstances," said a foreign office staffer. "We would have expected, given that a Department of Justice official was one of the passengers on that flight, that the department would be more aggressive in ensuring al-Megrahi remained imprisoned."
According to the British sources, the Obama White House was advised that due to internal, United Kingdom politics, it was going to be difficult for the British government to provide a full-court press on Scottish justice minister Kenny MacAskill. As it was, the British embassy in Washington provided the families of Pan Am 103 opportunities to speak to MacAskill and make their case for al-Megrahi not to be released.
In the days leading up to the Scottish decision, Holder and Clinton made calls to MacAskill, but "it isn't clear that much more was done," says the British career diplomat, who has spent time in both Washington and New York. "It seemed to be very much about going through the motions."
...according to Department of Justice sources, Holder never asked for legal options related to al-Megrahi, nor did the State Department present options to DOJ or the White House. More troubling, during the period when the Scottish government was seeking input from the U.S. and Pan 103 victims' families, President Obama was meeting with Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi at the G-8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy. At the time, according to White House sources, Obama had not been fully briefed on the al-Megrahi situation.
While the British source says that British officials bear much blame for al-Megrahi's release under a Libyan-British prison transfer treaty ratified in April, "those of us who were attempting to block the compassionate release here were hoping for greater support from the United States, and it was lacking."