By Ed Crooks, Energy Editor
Published: March 13 2008 02:00 | Last updated: March 13 2008 02:00
A package of modest tax breaks for North Sea oil and gas companies was set out by the Treasury yesterday, leaving the industry hoping for more substantial incentives to investment in the future.
The oil and gas industry was expected to pay £9.9bn in corporation tax and petroleum revenue tax in the coming fiscal year, the Treasury said, up from £7.7bn this year. In cash terms that would represent the biggest tax take from the North Sea since 1985-86.
That forecast was based on an assumption of an average oil price of $83.80 per barrel this year, well below yesterday’s record high for Brent crude of $106.39.
In that context, the £25m estimated benefit of the new tax reliefs to the industry next year is small.
Alistair Darling said the reforms would “help incentivise investment and support production”.
However, Michael Tholen, the economics director at Oil & Gas UK, the industry association, said that, while the measures were “sensible” assistance, “we are not talking about a tidal wave of new investment coming in to the North Sea as a result of these changes”.
The North Sea is one of the world’s fastest-declining regions for oil production. Oil and gas discoveries are typically very small, and much of the infrastructure is ageing, having been built in the boom years of the 1970s and 1980s. Big international companies that opened up the region, such as Royal Dutch Shell and BP, have been pulling back.
The measures announced yesterday are focused on improving the tax treatment of the costs of decommissioning infrastructure, estimated at about £20bn for the UK sector of the North Sea.
The Treasury is holding consultations with the industry on further tax relief, which is due to conclude in June. Mr Tholen said he hoped it could lead to capital allowances on developing smaller oil and gas fields.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
MORE DETAILS:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
