Oil & Gas UK urging rethink of North Sea tax regime

Industry body Oil & Gas UK has called for changes to the North Sea’s tax regime in order to counter the damaging effects of the falling crude price.

CEO Malcolm Webb said: “The Treasury’s promise in last year’s Autumn Statement of a simplified tax allowance to encourage new investment must be delivered by Budget 2015 if it is to have any impact.

“However, with the continued falling and potentially sustained low oil price, this is no longer enough,” he added.

“The credible and reasonable response for the Chancellor in his upcoming Budget, assuming the oil price has not recovered by then, is the abolition of the 30% supplementary charge on corporation tax, which was introduced and then increased in direct response to rising oil prices, most recently in 2011.”