Oil and gas windfall tax 'didn't feature' at first North Sea board meeting
Michael Shanks said the Energy Profits Levy was not mentioned at the inaugural meeting of the North Sea Future Board - although he “knows what people’s views are on it”.
The windfall tax on oil and gas giants “didn’t feature” in the first meeting of the a new North Sea board, a Labour minister has said.
Michael Shanks said the Energy Profits Levy was not mentioned at the inaugural meeting of the North Sea Future Board - although he “knows what people’s views are on it”.
The energy minister said that bringing together industry bodies from across oil, gas and clean energy sectors, trade unions and local leaders in Aberdeen on Thursday was a “real turning point” which should have happened “years ago”.
The EPL was brought in by the Tories as a temporary measure in May 2022 after companies recorded large profits due to a sharp rise in energy prices.
It was increased in last year’s budget and means oil and gas producers are paying a headline tax rate of 78 per cent.
Rachel Reeves announced it had been extended until at least 2030 in her Budget in November.
It has been criticised by oil and gas companies, with the sector saying it will be “taxed to death in five years”.
When asked if the EPL had come up at the meeting, Rutherglen MP Mr Shanks said: “I'm not going to reflect every single conversation, obviously, because I think it's important people were able to speak frankly.
“People raised issues. The EPL didn't feature, actually, as an absolutely sort of overarching thing, but I know what people's views are on it, so I don't want to underestimate that.
“But the key thing here is I asked people to come together to talk about all of the other actions that are necessary to make sure this transition is as prosperous and fair to people as it can be. And people have gone away with a genuine commitment to that.
“I think across oil and gas and the other technologies that we see as the future, there is a genuine commitment to work together to make this happen, a sort of all energy approach to making the North Sea as successful in the future as it has been for the past six years.”
He hailed the importance of the meeting and had a go at previous governments for not bringing stakeholders together.
Mr Shanks said: “The key thing with this is: this is a moment. It's a real turning point to say we should have been talking about this a long, long time ago.
“Previous governments didn't publish our plan in the future the North Sea. They didn't pull together the people to make it happen, and a third of the workforce lost their jobs without an alternative in place.
“We're determined to make sure that isn't the outcome, so every single minute will be spent making this as successful as possible.”
The minister said that at the meeting they had agreed upon “some really clear sighted actions taken away on the supply chain and on workforce as two key priorities, but a number of other things we'll take forward as well.”
When asked what the actions were that the board was going to take forward, he said: “We think as an immediate priority, the supply chain is where a significant number of the jobs are, but it's also where we've got the greatest opportunity.
“Particularly look at the offshore wind option, where we need to capitalize on that by having as many jobs in Scotland as possible, and so we've taken away some actions to look at exactly where are the gaps in the supply chain at the moment, but also where are the opportunities where existing supply chains could do more work and employ more people to deliver the projects that we know are coming.”
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