{"id":736742,"date":"2026-08-13T14:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T14:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/736742\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T14:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T14:08:14","slug":"barclays-backs-750m-north-sea-oil-bond-amid-uk-wildfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/736742\/","title":{"rendered":"Barclays backs $750m North Sea oil bond amid UK wildfires"},"content":{"rendered":"

While firefighters battled blazes across the south of England this week, Barclays helped arrange a $750 million bond deal for UK oil and gas giant Harbour Energy, Global Witness can reveal<\/p>\n

\"Fire<\/p>\n

Fire and rescue services attending the site of a wildfire in Suffolk in July 2026 in Dunwich, England. Humphrey Nemar \/ Pool \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Barclays earned an estimated $700,000 from its involvement in the deal with Harbour Energy – a key player in North Sea oil production. Four other non-UK headquartered banks \u2013 Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, DNB Bank ASA and JPMorgan – were involved in the deal.<\/p>\n

Harbour Energy is actively exploring new fields in Mexico, Argentina and recently obtained 9 new exploration licenses in Norway<\/a> – but leading climate scientists have repeatedly warned that there must be no new oil and gas projects<\/a> if global heating is to stay under 1.5 degrees.<\/p>\n

Harbour Energy’s 2025 annual report said emissions from the oil and gas it sold were just over 67 million tonnes – equivalent to the annual emissions of Serbia. This represents an 85% increase compared with the previous year.<\/p>\n

Fires in New Forest viewed on satellite imagery on the 10th August 2026. Courtesy of Planet Labs<\/p>\n

Burning fossil fuels is the most significant contributor to climate breakdown<\/a>, which in turn increases both the frequency and severity of wildfires.<\/a><\/p>\n

The news of Barclay\u2019s new financing of Harbour comes only two weeks after the bank assisted the company in executing a $250 million share buyback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the time of writing, fire is devastating the lives of ordinary people around the UK. Over 400 acres (1.6km2) of the New Forest has been affected, according to the leader of Hampshire County Council<\/a>. A record<\/a> drought in the UK has led to 72 fires in the country so far in 2026, burning over 230km2<\/a> \u2013 an area almost the size of Birmingham.<\/p>\n

\"Firefighters<\/p>\n

Firefighters trying to bring a wildfire under control in Bonhill, Scotland. Jeff J Mitchell \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Barclays publicly states it won\u2019t finance new fossil fuel expansion \u201cprojects\u201d, but climate campaigners have previously criticised \u201cloopholes\u201d<\/a> in its sustainability policy that still allows it to finance companies developing new oil and gas fields.<\/p>\n

According to a recent analysis, Barclays provided a total of $34.1 billion of financing to global fossil fuel companies<\/a> in 2025 alone.<\/p>\n

In 2025, Barclays became the second major UK bank to withdraw<\/a> from the now-defunct Net Zero Banking Alliance, arguing that its depleted membership undermined its effectiveness.<\/p>\n

The revelations come at the same time that new UK Prime Minister has said he is seeking a \u201cpragmatic<\/a>\u201d approach to new North Sea oil and gas drilling, which has drawn criticism by climate campaigners, including Global Witness.<\/p>\n

\"UK<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Andy Burnham going to chair his first COBRA meeting on the UK’s ongoing response to extreme heat, wildfires and drought. Kin Cheung \/ WPA Pool \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cOil companies are making billions from the fossil fuels that turbocharge extreme heat and wildfires. The very least we should expect is for polluters \u2013 not the public \u2013 to pay for the damage,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most ‘pragmatic’ decision is to follow the science and leave North Sea oil in the ground – to prevent even more UK land go up in flames in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to a request for comment, a Barclays spokesperson said that they do not comment on specific clients. However they added: \u201cAs a leading energy financier, we recognise the interconnectedness of economic growth, energy security and affordability and decarbonisation for the real economy.<\/p>\n

Financing both conventional and cleaner energy is not a contradiction \u2013 it is what delivering the transition requires.”<\/p>\n

Authors<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While firefighters battled blazes across the south of England this week, Barclays helped arrange a $750 million bond…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-736742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}