Ithaca Energy announced a major dividend on the eve of UK sanctions against companies operating in illegal Israeli settlements. A few weeks later it paid out £100m to a shareholder the UN says has ‘direct links’ to the occupied territories.
Prospective MSPs are legally required to evidence their election spending and confirm the records are correct. Following an investigation by The Ferret, Police Scotland is examining whether nine Reform UK candidates failed to do so.
Board members at the North Sea oil regulator hold Shell and BP shares. Critics say the investments raise questions about the body's independence.
Ithaca Energy announced a major dividend on the eve of UK sanctions against companies operating in illegal Israeli settlements. A few weeks later it paid out £100m to a shareholder the UN says has ‘direct links’ to the occupied territories.
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One of the biggest players in the North Sea oil industry paid out nearly £100m in profits to an Israeli firm linked by the UN to illegal settlements just weeks after the UK Government announced new sanctions on projects in the West Bank.
Aberdeen-based Ithaca Energy, which has stakes in six of the UK’s ten largest oil and gas fields and also holds a 20 per cent stake in Rosebank, announced in August it would be paying out almost £200m in dividends to its shareholders.
Those shareholders include the Delek Group, which owns more than 50 per cent of Ithaca. This means Delek was in line to receive just under £100m in profits from UK oil fields, which will add to the nearly £800m it has made from its stake in Ithaca since 2020. The payout was made on 24 September.
Delek was included on the most recent UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) database of companies linked to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which was updated on 25 September. It has been on the list since 2020, when it was first produced after a UN fact-finding mission.
However, Delek Group claims it has been put on the list in error, denies it operates in Israeli settlements and says it is appealing its inclusion with the UN. The Ferret has contacted the UN for clarification.
As we have previously reported, Delek Israel Fuel Corporation was wholly owned by Delek Group when it won a multi-million pound contract in June 2020 to provide refuelling services to Israeli military vehicles.
That contract was renewed in 2024 – when it increased in value by a further £130m – although by this point the wider Delek Group only held 25 per cent of Delek Israel shares. It now holds just under 20 per cent.
Research organisation Who Profits has claimed Delek Israel operates fuel stations in the occupied territories of East Jerusalem, the Syrian Golan, and the West Bank. The Ferret has found stations in all of these locations by checking Delek Israel’s petrol station locator. The Israeli Government disputes claims that settlements in these areas are illegal.
Delek Group also has a 61 per cent stake in Mehadrin, Israel's largest grower and exporter of agricultural produce, such as citrus fruits and avocados.
Back in 2012 the UN rapporteur called for a boycott against the company due to alleged operations in illegal settlements and in 2022, Jerusalem24, Palestinian outlet Y+ and Danish investigative media Danwatch, alleged Mehadrin exported dates produced in Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley to Europe. But Mehadrin has never featured on the OHCHR database and it denies the claims.
UK foreign secretary Ed Miliband announced on 8 September that Britain would introduce sanctions against goods produced in illegally occupied territory in the West Bank, and that new measures would “take action against specific companies” who provide “services” for “settlement expansion”. The UK is one of 12 countries, including France and Canada, which recently announced trade restrictions.
Miliband described the escalating settler violence against Palestinians as “ethnic cleansing” perpetrated by “settler terrorists”, and said members of the Israeli military were “complicit”.
Campaign groups working on the ground have raised escalating concerns about the levels of violence facing ordinary Palestinian families and communities living in towns and villages close to settlements or “outposts”. Video footage has shown ongoing harassment of Palestinians, including the use of drones. Settlers have also reportedly cut off access to water supplies, while physical violence is being documented on a daily basis.
Earlier this year the UN warned that settler violence was at an all time high in the West Bank as the Israeli Government continues to approve new settlements. By 20 July, 18 Palestinians had reportedly been killed that year in attacks involving settlers.
Yair D’Vir, of Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, said: “The Israeli regime continues to advance its project to eliminate Palestinian collective existence in the West Bank through violence and killing, ethnic cleansing, movement restrictions, economic strangulation, and attacks on social and political organisations.
“These processes are becoming increasingly extreme. As long as the international community continues to issue condemnations instead of taking action, the elimination of Palestinian collective existence will continue to advance.”
Previous analysis by The Ferret found Ithaca paid £786m in dividends to Delek Group between 2020 and April this year. Analysis by WWF Norway has estimated a further £220m could flow to Delek through Ithaca’s stake in Rosebank if the controversial project goes ahead.
Delek was on the UN list when the UK Government granted consent for the development of the field on 27 September 2023.
Paul Dobson
A few months after that, environmental lobby groups Uplift and Greenpeace launched legal challenges to overturn the approval of Rosebank, the country’s largest untapped North Sea oil field.
In January 2025 Scotland’s Court of Session ruled in their favour, finding approval of Rosebank was unlawful, as it did not account for the emissions that would be caused by burning the field’s oil. Lead developer Adura and Ithaca have resubmitted plans and environmental statements which the UK Government are currently reviewing.
Now the same organisations have written to the UK prime minister asking it to clarify whether Delek will be impacted by the sanctions announced by Miliband last month. The leader of the Greens in England and Wales, Zack Polanski, has also argued that approval of Rosebank would contradict the proposed sanctions.
Human rights organisations such as Amnesty International have called for the government to go further in holding Israeli companies like Delek accountable. Amnesty considers that the approval of the Rosebank oil field, because of its links to Delek, would conflict with the UK’s human rights obligations.
It claims “infrastructure that funds, sustains and supports Israel’s unlawful occupation”, must be tackled along with any political, financial and military support “that contributes to Israel’s serious and systematic violations of international law”.
Neil Cowan, Scotland programme director, said: "No company facilitating the existence and expansion of Israeli settlements should profit from decisions taken by the UK Government, or indeed any of its devolved counterparts,” he added. “The approval of Rosebank would fly in the face not just of the UK's climate commitments but its international human rights obligations.”
He claimed the language used by Miliband last month when he announced sanctions suggested “real intention” of a “comprehensive reset” of policy in relation to Israel but he added: “We still need to see further action towards holding Israel accountable and meeting the UK's international obligations.”
Scottish Greens co-leader Gillian Mackay said: “Conglomerates like Delek Group that are linked to illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine should be unequivocally and categorically blocked from profiting off of Scotland and the wider UK.
“John Swinney and his government must stay accountable and hold up their commitment to boycott, divest and sanction companies with links to Israel, including clarity on the Scottish Government’s stance on the Rosebank proposal. Anything less than this would backtrack on Scotland’s previous climate leadership and our unwavering commitment to international law.”
Paul Dobson
However a spokesperson for Delek Group said it had “no business or operations whatsoever in Israeli settlements”, adding: “The proposed sanctions have not been enacted and should not apply to the group.
“Delek Group has been wrongly included in the UN database,” they said. “Together with our legal advisers, we intend to formally challenge this and request the immediate removal of our name from the database.
“Ithaca Energy is an independent UK-incorporated and London-listed company, with its own board and management. Dividends received by Delek Group from Ithaca Energy are ordinary distributions to shareholders arising from Ithaca Energy’s commercial operations. Any attempt to draw a connection between these distributions and unrelated activities is entirely unfounded and misrepresents the facts.”
A spokesperson for the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office confirmed it was taking “clear action” in response to the “moral emergency” in Palestine and “creating new designation powers to go after individuals and companies that support, facilitate or profit from illegal settlement activity”. However it declined to comment on “whether particular persons or entities may be designated in the future”.
The Scottish Government said: “Decisions on the consenting of individual offshore oil and gas fields are a matter currently reserved for the UK Government.” Ithaca did not respond to requests for comment.
