Britain to Review Tax to Speed up North Sea O&G Deals
Britain will look at ways of making it easier to sell North Sea oil and gas fields by changing tax rules in order to keep them producing for longer, the finance ministry said. The move, which is due to be announced in finance minister Philip Hammond's budget on Wednesday, follows a call by the industry's oil lobby group for a change to decommissioning tax rules that have prevented deals in the North Sea. Owners of oil and gas assets get tax relief on the future costs of dismantling them, but as assets are sold the relief cannot be passed on to new owners.
Decommissioning Body Elects New Directors
On the eve of the Offshore Decommissioning Conference 2016, Decom North Sea, the offshore oil and gas decommissioning forum held its seventh Annual General Meeting in St Andrews. Last night (14th November), the AGM saw eight new board directors elected and one director re-elected from across a range of sectors within the oil and gas industry. New directors have been named as: Simon Gibb; Kevin Illingworth; Dick Lagerweij; Donald Martin; Mike Pettigrew; Will Rowley; Ron van der Laan and Tiana Walker; and Andrew Sneddon has been re-elected as director to the board.
Low Prices Threaten Arctic, UK Fields
Over 1 bln barrels could stay in the ground. Arctic Norway, mature British fields most vulnerable. British, Norwegian oil investments set for sharp falls but ongoing UK projects, Sverdrup to go on. Big oil and gas finds in waters along Europe's northern edge may remain undeveloped now that oil prices have dropped, keeping potential supply of over a billion barrels of oil equivalent out of the market for the foreseeable future. Discoveries in Arctic Norway could stay dormant, while mature British…
