Rosebank Oilfield Approval May Violate UK Sanctions on West Bank Settlements, Campaigners Warn Burnham

Campaigners and the Green Party have separately urged the government to scrutinise the proposed Rosebank oilfield over its financial ties to an Israeli conglomerate flagged by the United Nations for alleged involvement in West Bank settlements, warning that approving the project could undermine Britain's own sanctions regime.

The long-delayed decision on Rosebank, the largest untapped oilfield in British waters, sits off the coast of Shetland and has become a litmus test for the government's competing energy security and climate commitments. The ruling rests formally with Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh, but observers regard it as a significant indicator of Prime Minister Andy Burnham's broader stance on North Sea oil and gas.

At the centre of the dispute is Delek Group, an Israeli energy company that controls Ithaca Energy. Ithaca holds a 20% stake in the Rosebank development. Last year, Delek was added to a UN database listing companies allegedly providing services or utilities that support Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories. A spokesman for the company told the Daily Telegraph that it no longer has any involvement in settlements and was included in the database in error.

The timing of the decision has magnified its political sensitivity. Last month, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced sanctions targeting companies and individuals who provide services, including infrastructure, to settlement expansion, alongside a ban on imports of goods from illegal settlements. The measures marked a hardening of the UK's position and drew a furious response from Israel, which accused the government of pursuing "anti-Israel policies."

In a letter seen by BBC News, campaigners from Stop Rosebank and Greenpeace, supported by the group Uplift, have asked Burnham and Miliband to clarify whether Delek would be captured by the new sanctions. Uplift has also written directly to Burnham, pressing him to "confirm, unequivocally, whether Delek will be caught by the new planned measures" and to explain, if not, how that would be consistent with the government's stated intent to sanction those who finance or facilitate illegal settlements.

Uplift's legal challenge against the Rosebank project in 2023 succeeded in the courts and triggered the ongoing delay over a decision on exploration. The group's executive director, Tessa Khan, said "not one penny of North Sea oil profits" should flow to a company that "itself now risks being sanctioned by the UK."

Green Party leader Zack Polanski has written separately to Miliband, asking what steps the government would take to ensure revenue from UK oil and gas production does not finance illegal settlements. He described Rosebank as "a test of whether Labour's proposed sanctions regime is fit for purpose," adding that companies blacklisted by the UN for operating in illegal settlements should not be financed by oil and gas revenues from the North Sea.

Ithaca Energy rejected any suggestion of impropriety, telling the BBC it is a London Stock Exchange-listed company in the FTSE 100, governed by the highest standards of corporate governance. The company described itself as one of the biggest investors in the North Sea and Scotland, a responsible employer, and a major contributor to both the UK Treasury through tax payments and to the country's energy security. Delek's spokesman told the Telegraph it intends to formally challenge its inclusion in the UN database with the help of legal advisers and to request the immediate removal of its name.

The approval question extends beyond Rosebank to the Jackdaw gas field east of Aberdeen, which together have become hugely politically significant. Rosebank was originally approved by the previous Conservative government in 2023, but that decision was successfully challenged in the courts by campaigners including Uplift.

Miliband was widely thought to have opposed Rosebank when he served as energy secretary under Sir Keir Starmer. Burnham, by contrast, has repeatedly spoken of the need for a "flexible" approach to energy and is believed to favour drilling more where licences already exist in the North Sea. The outcome could also affect relations with Washington, where President Trump has pressured successive UK prime ministers to increase North Sea drilling. While Downing Street is relieved that Trump has not attacked the government's recent West Bank sanctions, his administration has said the US will not follow the same course.

The Foreign Office declined to comment. Israel has built about 160 settlements housing 700,000 Jews since occupying the West Bank and East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East war, with an estimated 3.3 million Palestinians living alongside them. Settlements are illegal under international law, and violence by settlers towards Palestinians in the West Bank has risen in recent months.

With the decision expected soon, the government faces pressure from opposing directions: campaigners demanding consistency in its sanctions policy and an energy industry warning that blocking Rosebank would harm investment and energy security. The ruling will carry consequences not only for one oilfield but for how credibly Britain's new settlement sanctions are seen to be enforced.