Energy Companies Demanding Tax Breaks Despite Huge Profits
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
I read with interest on Guardian online that Britain’s oil and gas companies, including BP, Shell and British Gas which recently announced record profits, are saying they need improvements in tax breaks if they are to meet higher production targets in the North Sea.
On the one hand, in my view, it seems they are holding Britain (and every energy consumer in the country) to ransom; ‘give us the economic incentive or we wont invest in North Sea Gas!’. But if we can’t produce enough Gas at home our imports will have to increase and that, I think, is bad news. We have little or no control over foreign supplies, which could be affected by political, economic or regulatory issues beyond our control. We can’t influence continuity or security of supply nor pricing. I think for these reasons Britain’s energy companies should be given some incentivising tax breaks to protect our North Sea interests. Of course it’s a contentious issue and one that will run and run but how else are we supposed to compete on the world stage if we do not protect, or invest in, our own energy assets? Limited as they are we need to keep them operational.
