Prime Minister Andy Burnham has been warned that approving the Rosebank oil field could breach his own government's sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Campaigners say Delek Group, parent of Rosebank stakeholder Ithaca Energy, was listed last year in a UN database of firms linked to settlement activity, and have asked ministers to clarify whether the sanctions apply to it.
The formal decision on Rosebank, Britain's largest untapped oil field off Shetland, lies with Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh, but will be seen as a sign of Burnham's own thinking on oil and gas — and campaigners say approving it risks contravening the sanctions his government just announced. Environmental groups and Green Party leader Zack Polanski have separately written to Burnham and Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband over Rosebank's ties to Delek Group, an Israeli company.
Delek's settlement ties under scrutiny
Delek Group was included last year in a UN database of firms that allegedly provide services or utilities supporting settlements in occupied Palestinian territory. A spokesman for the company told the Daily Telegraph it no longer had any involvement in Israeli settlements and was wrongly included in the database.
The company also controls Ithaca Energy, which holds a 20% stake in Rosebank. Ithaca told the BBC it is a London Stock Exchange-listed, FTSE 100 company governed by high standards of corporate governance.
Campaigners press for clarity
Stop Rosebank and Greenpeace, with help from Uplift, have written to Burnham and Miliband asking the government to clarify whether Delek falls foul of the sanctions announced last month. Uplift's 2023 legal challenge triggered the ongoing delay over Rosebank. Polanski separately asked Miliband what steps the government would take to stop oil and gas revenue financing illegal settlements.
According to Polanski: "Rosebank is a test of whether Labour's proposed sanctions regime is fit for purpose." Last month, Miliband signalled a hardening of the UK's stance, announcing action against companies that provide infrastructure to settlement expansion, and the sanctions will also ban imports of goods from illegal settlements.
A politically loaded decision
The choice on Rosebank, and the nearby Jackdaw gas field, has become highly significant politically. The previous Conservative government approved Rosebank in 2023, but courts quashed that decision after a challenge from Uplift and other campaigners, and Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh must now decide again.
Miliband was widely thought to oppose Rosebank while he held the energy brief, but Burnham has spoken of a "flexible" approach to energy and is believed to favour continued drilling at existing North Sea licenses. President Trump has pressed successive prime ministers to drill more in the North Sea, and Downing Street is relieved his administration has not attacked the government's West Bank sanctions, even though the US says it will not follow the same course. The Foreign Office declined to comment.
Source: BBC News
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