Campaigners say reopening North Sea oil and gas fields in the UK would be in breach of international law over a stakeholder company’s links to illegal West Bank settlements.
Reports suggest that new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham is set to “move quickly” to green light more oil and gas drilling as one of his first moves since taking office last week, despite concerns some of the profits would flow to a company blacklisted by the UN.
The two oil and gas fields in question are Rosebank, off Shetland in the North Atlantic, and Jackdaw in the North Sea coast of Scotland, which were approved by the previous Conservative government in 2022 and 2023, but then overturned in 2025 after a legal challenge.
Delek Group, an Israeli energy conglomerate, is the majority shareholder of Ithaca Energy, which owns 20 percent of Rosebank.
The UN human rights commissioner lists Delek on a database of firms whose activities in facilitating illegal West Bank settlements raise “particular human rights concerns”.
