OEUK hopeful of support for beleaguered offshore investors

Offshore staff

LONDON – Reports suggest the UK government is considering measures to boost investment in offshore energy, following a backlash to tax rises imposed on the sector late last year.

Industry association Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) said it hoped the anticipated announcements will encourage growth, boost jobs, cut emissions and protect UK energy security. 

OEUK’s Business Outlook Report, to be published tomorrow, will warn that a combination of windfall taxes and political uncertainty is deterring companies from investing the billions of pounds required to sustain future UK offshore oil and gas production.

Over 90% of its operator members are cutting back investment, while at the same time, the UK’s bill for oil and gas imports last year reached £117 billion ($143.3 billion).

Britain’s Office for Budget Responsibility predicts that the UK’s transition to net zero will cost £1.4 trillion ($1.71 trillion), most of which will need to come from private sector investment.

David Whitehouse, CEO of OEUK, said: “We have been calling for some time for new measures to turbocharge investment in clean energy that maintains energy security, as the US and other countries are doing, which we have no time to waste on…

 “Windfall taxes have damaged the confidence of companies to invest in the long-term energy security of the UK, which relies on oil and gas for 76% of its energy. When prices drop, it is fair that the windfall tax should fall away…

“If this tax is changed, as conditions and prices have changed, that would be a positive move that would go some way to start rebuilding confidence and the business cases companies need to invest in the UK energy industry and in new technologies such as offshore wind, hydrogen and carbon capture, and our workforce of over 200,000 decent people around the country.”

03.27.2023