Rosebank oil field faces questions over sanctions and Israeli settlements

The prime minister has been warned that approving the Rosebank oil field could breach British sanctions linked to illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The warning was set out in separate letters from environmental campaigners and Green Party leader Zack Polanski. Both letters were sent to Andy Burnham and Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband. Both focus on who owns a share of the North Sea project BBC.

Rosebank lies off Shetland. It is described as Britain's largest untapped oil field. Ithaca Energy holds a 20% stake. Ithaca is controlled by the Israeli company Delek Group BBC.

Delek was included last year in a UN database of firms said to provide services or utilities that support settlements in occupied Palestinian territories. A Delek Group spokesman said the company no longer had any role in Israeli settlements and said it was wrongly included in the UN database.

Campaigners from Stop Rosebank and Greenpeace, with help from Uplift, wrote to Burnham and Miliband. They asked whether Delek would be caught by sanctions announced last month. Ministers have not yet given a formal reply. Polanski wrote separately to Miliband. He asked what steps the government would take to ensure revenue from British oil and gas did not fund illegal settlements.

In his letter, Polanski said "companies blacklisted by the UN for operating in the illegal settlements should not be financed by oil and gas revenues from the North Sea" Green Party. He said Rosebank was a test of whether Labour's planned sanctions regime was fit for purpose. He also urged Miliband to block the field over the alleged links to Israel Telegraph, and asked for clarity on the government's view of Ithaca Energy.

Last month Miliband announced action against companies and individuals providing services, such as infrastructure, for settlement expansion. He said British sanctions will ban imports of goods from illegal settlements. The letters ask how that system would apply to a North Sea operator part-owned by a group named on the UN list.

On process, the history is straightforward. Rosebank was approved by the previous Conservative government in 2023. That decision was overturned in court after a challenge by campaigners including Uplift. A judicial review, where a judge checks if a decision was lawful, forced a rethink. The next decision rests with Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh.

Sanctions rules in Whitehall work in a set way. The UK Sanctions List names people, firms and ships placed under rules made under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018. The rules can also cover firms owned or controlled by a named person, even if they are not named themselves. The question here is narrower. It is whether a company listed by the UN, but not necessarily named by London, would be caught by the wider steps Miliband set out last month.

The broader context here will be familiar to officials. Permission for North Sea fields, known as consent, sits with the Energy Secretary. Sanctions and foreign policy sit with the Foreign Office and the Treasury. Any new consent could face further court action, questions in Parliament, and pressure from the devolved governments in Edinburgh and Cardiff, alongside joint pressure from climate and human rights groups.

For ministers in London, the political pressures point both ways. Refusal would please environmental campaigners and part of Labour's base. It would anger industry and unions worried about jobs and investment off Scotland. Approval would reverse that. It would also raise questions about how energy policy fits with foreign policy, after joint action with Canada, France and Norway on settler violence and after EU ministers agreed steps against violent settlers.