Satch
MB Enthusiast
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2003
- Messages
- 3,508
- Location
- Surrey
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- S211 E320Cdi Avantgarde Estate & Toyota Land Cruiser
Hurrah! Gordon and Alistair will make the oil prices and thus fuel prices all better by "tweaking" some North Sea Oil tax rules. Happy faces and big happy headlines all round
Utter, utter, nonsense lies and spin. This sort of thing makes so many people in the business world worry just what the UK Government will do next.
Despite the headlines it does not actually reverse the 2005 vintage Gordon Brown insanity that everyone in the oil industry told him in very clear and logical terms why this would serve only to depress long term output and inhibit further development in a high cost area that was rapidly becoming marginal.
But at the time Gordon, who was seeking only more revenues short term, dismissed this as baseless protestations by evil oil company capitalists. Oh really.
Gordon Brown landed North Sea oil in choppy water
".....the Government is culpable for its management of the tax regime. Some years ago Mr Brown switched the system to a more modern scheme, charging oil companies a supplement to corporation tax for their North Sea profits, but allowing them to offset the investment they poured in.
It was a sensible change, designed to encourage companies to spend more on finding new fields. However, in 2005, the Treasury suddenly and unexpectedly raised this supplementary tax rate.
All businesses are reluctant to invest in a region if they fear its tax policies will change suddenly and without warning - none more so than oil companies, which make their investment decisions on a 20 to 30-year horizon. Crucially, the tax cut announced yesterday affects only older oil fields, which are covered by a separate tax regime, and does not reverse this new windfall tax.
This is hardly surprising. Over the past decades the North Sea has become one of the Government's biggest corporate tax cows, generating more than £230bn in revenue since 1968. The Treasury is expecting to make around £10bn this year from oil revenues, though experts at Grant Thornton think this could rise as high as £16bn due to higher oil prices.
However, this windfall has come at a price. If, as thought, it is responsible for depressing production in recent years, it has helped make the UK a net oil importer two years earlier than expected.
Not only does this have serious implications for energy policy, it has pushed the current account deficit sharply higher and contributed to a weaker pound. It has meant that whereas a few years ago Britain was well positioned to benefit from a high oil price, the implications today are far more damaging for the economy."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/05/29/ccoil129.xml
Utter, utter, nonsense lies and spin. This sort of thing makes so many people in the business world worry just what the UK Government will do next.
Despite the headlines it does not actually reverse the 2005 vintage Gordon Brown insanity that everyone in the oil industry told him in very clear and logical terms why this would serve only to depress long term output and inhibit further development in a high cost area that was rapidly becoming marginal.
But at the time Gordon, who was seeking only more revenues short term, dismissed this as baseless protestations by evil oil company capitalists. Oh really.
Gordon Brown landed North Sea oil in choppy water
".....the Government is culpable for its management of the tax regime. Some years ago Mr Brown switched the system to a more modern scheme, charging oil companies a supplement to corporation tax for their North Sea profits, but allowing them to offset the investment they poured in.
It was a sensible change, designed to encourage companies to spend more on finding new fields. However, in 2005, the Treasury suddenly and unexpectedly raised this supplementary tax rate.
All businesses are reluctant to invest in a region if they fear its tax policies will change suddenly and without warning - none more so than oil companies, which make their investment decisions on a 20 to 30-year horizon. Crucially, the tax cut announced yesterday affects only older oil fields, which are covered by a separate tax regime, and does not reverse this new windfall tax.
This is hardly surprising. Over the past decades the North Sea has become one of the Government's biggest corporate tax cows, generating more than £230bn in revenue since 1968. The Treasury is expecting to make around £10bn this year from oil revenues, though experts at Grant Thornton think this could rise as high as £16bn due to higher oil prices.
However, this windfall has come at a price. If, as thought, it is responsible for depressing production in recent years, it has helped make the UK a net oil importer two years earlier than expected.
Not only does this have serious implications for energy policy, it has pushed the current account deficit sharply higher and contributed to a weaker pound. It has meant that whereas a few years ago Britain was well positioned to benefit from a high oil price, the implications today are far more damaging for the economy."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/05/29/ccoil129.xml
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