An Israeli company with close financial links to a Scottish oil firm has renewed a contract to provide fuel to the IDF since the start of the war in Gaza.
Aberdeen-based Ithaca Energy was handed oil exploration licences by the last UK Government and has a stake in Rosebank, the biggest untapped oil field in the North Sea.
Ithaca is majority-owned by Israeli conglomerate Delek Group and has channelled hundreds of millions of pounds to it in recent years.
In April, The Ferret revealed that Delek also owns a stake in Delek Israel, a petrol station chain which held a multi-million-pound contract to provide refuelling services to Israeli military vehicles.
Now it has emerged that the contract has been renewed and increased in value by a further £130m in 2024, despite widespread condemnation of the Israeli military’s actions in Gaza, which have claimed over 40,000 lives according to Palestinian officials.
Campaigners have described the risk that profits from UK oil could flow to a company “linked to human rights violations against Palestinians” as “indefensible”.
Amnesty International claimed granting oil licences to a company linked to “logistical support for war crimes in Gaza” violates the UK’s responsibilities under international law.
Ithaca described Delek as a “shareholder” and emphasised it is a UK-listed company which “holds itself to the highest standards of UK corporate governance”.
The risk that some of the profits from this huge UK oil field may flow towards a company that is linked to human rights violations against Palestinians… is indefensible.
Tessa Khan, Uplift
In 2020, Delek Israel won a tender from Israel’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) which allows IDF and MoD vehicles to refuel at its petrol stations.
At the time of the tender, Delek Israel was fully owned by Delek Group. Delek now owns 25 per cent of Delek Israel shares.
The refuelling contract was initially for three years from 2020 to 2023 but had an option to extend. According to an Israeli budget document that option has been taken up, with the order increased by £130m in 2024.
The findings come as Norwegian activists and politicians are stepping up pressure on the country’s government-owned energy company, Equinor, to end its partnership with Ithaca on the controversial Rosebank development off Shetland.
Rosebank was approved in September 2023 by the previous UK government despite fierce opposition from environmental groups. However, the new Labour government has said it will not challenge a legal bid by green campaigners to block drilling at the field.
Ithaca holds a 20 per cent stake in Rosebank while Equinor owns 80 per cent.
Equinor’s involvement with Ithaca has been criticised by members of left-wing and green parties in Norway. Activists argue the partnership undermines Norway’s “strong and principled position” on issues relating to Israel and Palestine.
Norway recognised the state of Palestine in May this year and its prime minister has said there can be no peace in the Middle East without a two-state solution to the conflict.
Norway’s massive wealth fund and largest pension fund have also ruled out investing in Delek due to human rights concerns.
Over 14,000 people in the Scandinavian country have signed a petition asking for Equinor to end the partnership to stop “profits flowing to a company that operates in illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land”.
As The Ferret first reported in 2022, Delek has repeatedly been named on a UN blacklist of firms whose business activities in the West Bank “raise particular human rights concerns”.
There are nearly 150 Israeli settlements in the West Bank. They are considered to be illegal under international law and are a continual source of violence between Israeli settlers and Palestinians.
Violence in the West Bank has intensified since the escalation of the war in Gaza last year.
That escalation came after Hamas killed 1,200 people – many Israeli civilians – in attacks on October 7. Israel’s retaliation to that attack has killed more than 40,000 people in Gaza.
In May, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for war crimes for both Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, and Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in relation to the conflict.
The UK Government recently suspended a small number of arms export licences to Israel after a review found there was a risk of some items being used in serious violations of international law.
Neil Cowan, the director of Amnesty International Scotland, said no North Sea oil firm should have “business links” to Israeli settlements or firms providing “logistical support” for Israel’s war in Gaza.
Cowan said: “It totally flies in the face of the UK’s international legal responsibilities for the UK to be granting concessions or contracting with any company that reportedly provides logistical support for war crimes in Gaza.”
He added that if Delek had been “supplying services to Russian-occupied Crimea rather than illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territory” it would have been subject to sanctions.
Tessa Khan, director of climate campaign group Uplift, claimed the Rosebank oil field should be stopped purely because of the “enormous harm it will inflict on our climate”.
“But the risk that some of the profits from this huge UK oil field may flow towards a company that is linked to human rights violations against Palestinians, and which has a contract to provide fuel to the IDF, is indefensible,” she added.
Meanwhile, Frode Pleym, the head of Greenpeace in Norway, said it was “shameful” to see Equinor “pressing on with the Rosebank oil field knowing this will fuel the illegal and brutal occupation of Palestine”.
The political opposition in the country was “demanding that the government intervene” to stop Equinor partnering with Ithaca on the field, he said.
An Ithaca Energy spokesperson said: “Ithaca Energy is a listed UK plc that holds itself to the highest standards of UK corporate governance. Delek Group is a shareholder of Ithaca Energy.”
Equinor said Ithaca was one of the UK’s largest “independent” oil and gas companies and its listing on the London Stock Exchange meant it had “obligations to comply with UK sanctions, rules and regulations”.
The UK Government and Delek Group have been asked to comment.
Cover image thanks to iStock/Wirestock
