Claiming the measure is “choking” upstream investment and slowly killing the sector, the North Sea oil and gas industry has renewed its call for UK finance minister Rachel Reeves to scrap the Energy Profits Levy (EPL) or “windfall tax” on company profits.
“The EPL has had a very negative impact on activity in the North Sea the last few years,” Bracewell’s Eimear Murphy told S&P Global Commodity Insights. “Some have commented that the tax regime in the UK is less reliable than many jurisdictions in sub-Saharan Africa.”
“We have no idea what the government will do,” added Bracewell’s Francois Feuillat on the EPL and the budget. “I see no sign personally that they are planning to [scrap it]. It’s hard to see that they would have the fiscal headroom.”
Introduced in 2022 amid soaring energy prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EPL is currently due to expire in 2030.
