Oil giant Ithaca Energy wants to drill two of the North Sea’s biggest and most controversial oil developments, Rosebank and Cambo, just as experts are calling for an end to new drilling to stay within safe climate limits.
Ithaca Energy is majority-owned by the Delek Group, an Israeli fuel conglomerate operating in Occupied Palestinian Territory. Delek has been included by the UN in a list of businesses whose activities in the West Bank have “raised particular human rights concerns.” The UN database includes companies that have enabled, facilitated and profited from the construction and growth of Israeli settlements and the impact on the rights of Palestinian people.
If it goes ahead, some of Rosebank’s vast oil profits could flow to Delek, a company that operates in illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine. The Delek Group is expected to receive around £253 million in revenue from Rosebank. Hundreds of millions of pounds from Ithaca’s North Sea operations have already flowed to Delek in the form of dividends.
Delek also has provided fuel to the Israel Defence Forces via its subsidiary, Delek Israel, with military personnel able to refuel at hundreds of petrol stations owned by Delek Israel.
Ithaca is holding the UK back, making billions in profit from North Sea drilling while investing nothing in UK renewable energy to help the UK transition away from expensive oil and gas. Ithaca has lobbied hard against the windfall tax, which is designed to claw back some of their excessive profits to help struggling UK bill payers.
There are lots of reasons the Rosebank oil field should be stopped - from the catastrophic impact it would have to our climate, the billions that the UK public would have to hand over in tax breaks, and the impact on our marine life. But the risk that profits from Rosebank may flow towards a company that is linked to human rights violations against Palestinians is indefensible.
Ithaca’s partner in Rosebank, the Norwegian state-backed oil giant Equinor, is under pressure to cut ties with Ithaca after the Norwegian government advised against business cooperation that contributes to Israel’s illegal occupation. Equinor needs to do the right thing and ditch Ithaca.
Equinor is under investigation by the Norwegian Consumer Authority for a potential breach of a transparency law that requires Norwegian companies to ensure that their business operations and relationships respect basic human rights and are in line with international guidelines.
Profits made from exploiting the North Sea’s resources should not be financially benefiting companies linked to human rights violations against Palestinians.
Click here to tell Equinor’s board to drop Ithaca and Rosebank
More on Ithaca and Delek
Oil firm Ithaca, one the North Sea’s biggest oil and gas operators, is behind two of the UK’s biggest and most controversial oil developments, Rosebank and Cambo. Ithaca holds stakes in dozens of North Sea developments, including the basin’s two biggest and most controversial projects: it is the sole owner of the Cambo oil field and owns 20% of the neighbouring Rosebank oil field, the UK’s largest undeveloped oil field.
Rosebank’s co-owner, Ithaca, is majority-owned by Delek Group, an energy company that operates in occupied Palestinian Territory. Ithaca’s North Sea profits already financially benefit Delek. In the past two years, Ithaca Energy has sent hundreds of millions of pounds in dividends to Delek. Delek Group has been included by the UN in a list of businesses that are connected to illegal settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territory. The UN database includes companies that have enabled, facilitated and profited from the construction and growth of Israeli settlements and the impact on the rights of Palestinian people. The list criticises Delek for the “use of natural resources, in particular water and land, for business purposes” and the “provision of services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements”.
Norway’s largest pension fund, KLP, divested from Delek Group concluding that “there is unacceptable risk that the excluded companies contribute to violations of human rights in war and conflict situations through their affiliation with the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank”.
A report found that Delek Israel, part-owned by the Delek Group, has renewed its contract to supply fuel to the IDF, with military personnel able to refuel at hundreds of petrol stations owned by Delek Israel. Another Delek subsidiary is also planning to develop gas fields in another area of occupied territory in Western Sahara, which is disputed by indigenous Sahrawi people. In December 2023, the Norwegian Government Pension fund divested from Delek Group because of this activity in Western Sahara.
Equinor is under investigation
Equinor is under investigation by the Norwegian Consumer Authority for a potential breach of a transparency law that requires Norwegian companies to ensure that their business operations and relationships respect basic human rights and are in line with international guidelines. This investigation follows a legal complaint by Greenpeace Norway, which argued that Equinor has failed to carry out proper due diligence assessments of its partner on the Rosebank field.
Equinor is majority owned by the Norwegian state, which has taken a principled position on the humanitarian disaster in Palestine. It has explicitly warned Norwegian companies that they must not contribute to Israel’s illegal occupation – sparking urgent questions from opposition politicians and campaigners as to why the nation’s state-backed oil firm has been allowed to partner with Delek-owned Ithaca.
Growing protests in Norway and the UK
Equinor, which has said its collaboration with Ithaca is unproblematic, has seen an escalation of protests against it in its home country, with over 25,000 Norwegians have now signed a petition against the company’s collaboration with Ithaca and Delek, occupations of Equinor’s offices in Norway, Equinor’s leadership being confronted at their AGM, and a protest outside the company’s autumn conference 2024. In the UK, campaigners have also raised the issue in a meeting with the Norwegian ambassador to the UK, disrupted Ithaca’s AGM in Aberdeen and held actions at Equinor’s offices in London and Aberdeen.
