Responding to the Labour Party Manifesto 2019, Deirdre Michie, Chief Executive OGUK said:
“The Labour manifesto talks about a windfall tax on oil and gas companies, but does not give numbers.
“Our industry supports over 270,000 highly skilled, well-paid jobs the length and breadth of the UK and delivers £24 billion of value to the UK economy. The recently published, independent report from the Committee on Climate Change confirms that oil and gas will remain an important part of the UK’s energy mix for decades to come. Any increase in tax rates affecting our UK activities will drive investors away and damage the competitiveness of the UK’s offshore oil and gas industry. This tax has the potential to affect security of energy supply for the UK and increase our reliance on imports, effectively passing the buck for production emissions to other countries. Neither do imports sustain UK jobs or the supply chain companies whose expertise we need to enable the energy transition.
“We are an industry in action and were have been one of the first to step forward in response to the Government target of net zero with a clear plan, ‘Roadmap 2035 a blueprint for net zero’, to reduce our own emissions and help to develop the technology essential to enable the UK to achieve net zero. Our industry’s expertise and investment is needed as part of the solution. We look forward to working with the next government, whoever wins, and will play our part with others in society.”
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