Norwegian state-owned Equinor has made over £140 billion in profits since the start of the energy crisis. Instead of using these profits to invest in renewables, Equinor is doubling down on new oil and gas projects across the world. One of the most controversial projects is Rosebank, the largest undeveloped oil field in the UK. Rosebank won’t boost British energy security or cut bills but it will help wreck the climate. And UK taxpayers will foot most of the cost for the field while the profits go to Equinor and its partner Ithaca Energy.
In developing Rosebank, Equinor is ignoring the full climate, ecological, and human rights impacts of its activities. Their reckless gamble on Rosebank threatens our chance at a liveable future and the UK's potential to be a true climate leader. Rosebank must be rejected.
The Rosebank oil field has generated significant controversy and opposition at home and abroad. Hundreds of thousands of people across the UK, Norway and the world have shown their opposition to Rosebank, with over 1,000,000 people demanding the UK government stop Rosebank, all new oil and gas, and deliver a just transition to renewable energy.
Opposition to Rosebank continues to grow and now includes 700 scientists and experts, over 225 organisations, trade union leaders, 400 UK faith leaders, doctors, farmers, 40 MEPs, MPs from every major political party in the UK, globally recognised organisations such as the World Wildlife Fund, Oxfam Great Britain, Save The Children, and notable individuals including Aurora, Greta Thunberg, Vanessa Nakate, Christiana Figueres, and Naomi Klein. Even the UK’s Science Museum in London has cut ties with Equinor, Rosebank's owner, over its climate record.
The International Energy Agency is clear that new oil and gas developments are incompatible with limiting global warming to 1.5°C – a limit that we are already overshooting. Burning Rosebank's reserves would produce more CO2 than the annual emissions of the 28 lowest-income countries in the world combined or the same 56 coal-fired power stations running for a year. The science is clear: Rosebank is not consistent with the UK’s climate commitments of limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C
On top of that, the pipeline from Rosebank would cut through a specially protected seabed, potentially harming some of the world’s rarest and oldest marine life, such as delicate coral gardens, sea clams, dolphins and whales.
Rosebank’s oil is overwhelmingly for export and will do nothing to strengthen the UK’s energy security, something the UK government admitted in 2024. Rosebank’s reserves are 90% oil, and the UK exports around 80% of the oil it produces.
Equinor has said that Rosebank’s oil would be sold on the open market, most likely in Europe. New UK oil and gas production does not affect the market price and won’t bring down UK energy bills, something publicly admitted by former Conservative government ministers.
Rosebank’s huge climate impact outweighs the weak economic case for its development, including a potential loss to UK Treasury, a minimal boost to UK energy supplies and no impact on UK fuel bills. What it will do is make Norway, one of the richest countries in the world, even richer.
Generous tax breaks mean the UK public would shoulder over 80% of the costs - and the vast majority of risk - from developing Rosebank. In a base-case scenario taking the long-term average oil price of $70 a barrel, Rosebank could result in a net loss of over £250 million to the UK Treasury, while the field’s owners Equinor and Ithaca would earn £1.5 billion in profit.
Equinor – which made £24 billion in profits in 2024 – also secured £400 million in tax relief in just two years thanks to a little-known tax break, the Ringfence Expenditure Supplement (RFES), originally created to enable smaller oil companies to explore marginal fields in the North Sea. Equinor is receiving billions in tax breaks while more than 6.5 million households in the UK struggle to heat their homes.
Equinor’s partner on Rosebank is British-based Ithaca Energy, which is majority-owned by the Israeli energy giant, Delek Group. Delek Group operates in Israeli settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territory, which are considered illegal under international law. Delek is named in a UN list of businesses whose activities in the West Bank have “raised particular human rights concerns”. Delek also provides 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.
Norway’s largest pension fund - KLP - divested from Delek in 2021 due to its operations in illegal Israeli settlements, with the fund citing an “unacceptable risk of the company contributing to or being responsible for serious breaches of ethical norms”. Norway’s $1.5 trillion sovereign wealth fund also divested from Delek in 2023 for ‘violation of ethical norms’ due to the group’s activities in Western Sahara.
If the field goes ahead, some of Rosebank’s vast oil profits could flow to Delek, a company that operates in illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine. Delek is expected to receive around £253 million in revenue from Rosebank. International human rights organisations have warned that UK ministers must ensure there are no corporate links between a North Sea oil licensee and illegal Israeli settlements.
Now, Equinor is under investigation by the Norwegian Consumer Authority for a potential breach of a transparency law that requires Norwegian companies to ensure 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, Ithaca Energy.
Equinor’s decision to pursue fossil fuel projects like Rosebank while cutting renewable energy projects sends a strong signal that the company is not committed to safe climate limits. In February 2025, CEO Anders Opedal confirmed that Equinor was slashing its renewables investment by HALF from $10 billion to $5 billion while increasing its oil and gas production by 10%. Equinor is slashing renewables despite only 0.6% of the company’s total energy production coming from renewable sources.
In 2023, the UK’s advertising watchdog banned Equinor from repeating green claims that it was a broad energy company. They found that Norway’s state-backed energy company was overstating its environmental credentials, given that most of the company’s revenues come from oil and gas.
On top of this, Rosebank's co-owner, Ithaca Energy currently invests nothing in renewables and has no plans to anytime soon. These two companies are doubling down on oil and gas and trying to squeeze every last drop of profit while they still can.
In January 2025, a UK court ruled that the initial decision to approve Rosebank was unlawful, as it did not account for the emissions that would come from burning the field’s reserves. This means the decision needs to be remade under the government’s new regulatory framework, which will decide how these emissions should be taken into account for new fossil fuel projects. The UK government has now published this new regulatory framework to fully account for the climate harm caused by fields like Rosebank.
Soon, Rosebank’s owners Equinor and Ithaca Energy will reapply for drilling permission. Their application will be subject to the government’s new climate test requiring it to account for the vast emissions from burning Rosebank’s reserves. This will allows the government, for the first time, to weigh a project’s true climate impact and make informed decisions on whether the public interest is served by it. These new rules should make it even harder for Rosebank to get the greenlight.
Under this tightened assessment process, the full climate impacts of Rosebank will be counted alongside existing appraisals of its economic impact and compatibility with UK energy policy, which now includes government plans to align future oil and gas production with UK commitments to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C.
There is now overwhelming scientific evidence that there is no room for new oil and gas projects if we are to stay within safe climate thresholds. Emissions from burning global reserves in existing and planned oil and gas fields would exceed – by a long way – the remaining carbon budget for 1.5°C. The science shows that opening any new North Sea oil and gas fields is inconsistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C. The Rosebank decision will be the central test of this government's commitment to tackling the climate crisis.
Approving Rosebank would undermine any claim of UK climate leadership. If the UK government wants to go into November’s critical climate talks in Brazil with any hope of inspiring other countries to increase their ambition, it must reject Rosebank.
Every MP in the UK Parliament should oppose this climate wrecking project while the government is getting ready to make its crucial decision. Ask your MP today to pledge to Stop Rosebank and prevent 200 million tonnes of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere by this disaster project.
Together, we can and will stop Rosebank.
