Ed Miliband set to issue final ruling on oil drilling off Falkland Islands after refusing to open up North Sea

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Sep 18, 2026 - 05:10

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Ed Miliband set to issue final ruling on oil drilling off Falkland Islands after refusing to open up North Sea

Ed Miliband is set to issue a final ruling on whether to push ahead with oil drilling off the Falkland Islands - after he refused to open up the North Sea.

The Foreign Secretary, who previously served as Energy Secretary under Sir Keir Starmer, is responsible for dishing out and renewing licenses for oil exploration overseas.

Earlier this year, Mr Miliband was branded "deluded" after he oversaw a ban on all new North Sea oil licences.

The Conservatives accused the Labour minister of doing "all he can" to end drilling off Scotland and urged him to confirm whether he will give the green light for the Falklands projects to proceed.

The Foreign Secretary now faces a deadline of December 31 to approve a licence for the next phase of the Sea Lion development.

It also covers a new project known as Darwin, which unlike Sea Lion, is yet to be signed off.

Sea Lion lies 136 miles north of the Falklands in the South Atlantic Ocean, with the development being jointly-owned by Israeli company Navitas and British firm Rockhopper Exploration.

The oil field is believed to contain the equivalent of about 900 million barrels of oil and sits around 1.6 miles below the seabed, itself at a depth of nearly 1,500 feet.

The Government of the Falkland Islands will take a nine per cent royalty on revenues from the field and a 26 per cent corporation tax on profits, promising a significant new source of wealth for the British islands.

Under the territory's laws, only the Foreign Secretary has the power to change licence conditions and approve new permits

Shadow Energy Secretary Andrew Bowie said: "Out of all the desks in the Government where the future of Falklands oil could have landed, fate has picked the one belonging to the man who has done all he can to end North Sea production.

"With Buenos Aires threatening sanctions and every licence outside Sea Lion running out on New Year's Eve, Labour cannot be allowed to let this slide by the wayside."

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Earlier this month, Foreign Office Minister Kirsty McNeil insisted that "the decision by the Falkland Islands Government to pursue hydrocarbon production is a commercial decision for them to take alongside the commercial companies involved".

Speculation as to whether Mr Miliband will approve the licences comes just weeks after Argentine President Javier Milei insisted his country will not allow oil drilling off the Falklands.

In a national address in which he falsely claimed the British territory was Argentinian, he unveiled sanctions on the companies behind the Sea Lion project.

He said: "If we do not act swiftly in a few months, they will have the material capacity to access the oil that lies underneath our sea. Something that has never happened before.

"That means that our national claim is facing a clear and present danger, and requires a proportional response. We will not allow it."

Mr Miliband's looming decision comes as Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh is weighing up whether to approve the Rosebank and Jackdaw sites for North Sea oil drilling.

The Labour minister had been expected to give the green light to Jackdaw this month, but the decision has since been pushed back.

The Tories accused Labour of delaying the rubber stamp until after the party's showdown with the Greens in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election.

Mr Bowie accused the Government of putting the Labour Party "before the interests of Great Britain”.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "The UK supports the rights of the Falklanders to develop their natural resources for their own economic benefit because this is an absolutely integral part of their self-determination."

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