Scotland counts cost of oil giant’s huge investor payouts |
Amid talk of a crisis in the North Sea an oil giant has underlined the appeal of assets in the area after making hefty job cuts which it blamed on the windfall tax.
As the end of a year that is reckoned to have been one of the toughest ever for the North Sea oil industry approaches a giant has undermined the case for the Government to provide help with its shows of apparent corporate greed.
Industry leaders in Aberdeen say the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, signed the death sentence for the North Sea last month when she decided to leave the windfall tax in place.
They claim the Energy Profits Levy (EPL) has put huge strain on the finances of North Sea firms since it was first imposed by the former Conservative Government in 2022. In her Budget last year, Ms Reeves raised the headline rate to 78%, from 75%.
Robert Gordon University has estimated that job losses have been running at 1,000 a month although Ms Reeves questioned that figure this month.
With the SNP’s leader at Westminster Stephen Flynn insisting the claims are realistic, one of the North Sea’s biggest producers has helped lend them credibility by axing around 700 jobs.
However, the arguments it has used to justify the cuts look increasingly flimsy.
Read more
Harbour Energy cut 350 jobs in May 2023 in a move it blamed on the windfall tax.
But analysts had predicted that it would make cuts on that scale long before the windfall tax was imposed. Harbour’s acquisition of Premier Oil in 2021 created scope to rationalise duplicated functions.
Harbour announced a further 250 cuts........