国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

World / Europe

Britain needs oil tax cuts to attract North Sea investment

(Agencies) Updated: 2015-03-17 19:09

LONDON - Britain's finance minister must announce bold oil tax changes in his 2015-16 budget this week to inject new life into the battered North Sea where investment in new projects has fallen and billions of dollars of assets are up for sale.

Oil and gas companies in the area are facing a perfect storm of record-high investment costs and a slump in global oil prices, which has put their balance sheets under strain.

As a result, more than $7 billion of oil and gas fields are currently up for grabs in Britain's North Sea, according to data compiled by oil and gas consultancy 1Derrick - but closing deals has proved difficult due to a dearth of buyers.

Many large firms have cut investment in the mature basin as they see more profitable opportunities in emerging areas such as south-east Asia and Brazil. Around 25 billion pounds worth of energy firm investments in North Sea projects have still to get the go-ahead from company boards, according to industry group Oil & Gas UK.

While British finance minister, or chancellor, George Osborne has signalled that the industry can expect new tax relief measures in Wednesday's budget announcements, it is unclear what form such measures may take.

But a change in the taxation regime, together with the fact that in recent months some cash-strapped firms are putting stakes in more attractive projects up for sale, could prompt a revival in deals and attract fresh investment to a sector worth around 5 billion pounds a year to the government's coffers.

"If (tax relief) doesn't happen, investment will start to tail off, exploration activity will not increase and there is a real risk of early decommissioning of fields and the associated infrastructure," said Julian Small, global head of oil and gas tax at advisory firm Deloitte.

Tax experts say the chancellor is likely to announce the introduction of an investment allowance that will reduce the capital expenditure tax rate, a proposal the Treasury put forward last autumn.

Some oil executives have also called for a supplementary charge on oil producers' profits to be cut to 20 percent - the level at which it stood between 2006 and 2011 - from 30 percent now, while others want the charge to be dropped altogether.

"It needs to be looked at as the tax position is hindering viability," Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said in January.

Previous Page 1 2 Next Page

Trudeau visits Sina Weibo
May gets little gasp as EU extends deadline for sufficient progress in Brexit talks
Ethiopian FM urges strengthened Ethiopia-China ties
Yemen's ex-president Saleh, relatives killed by Houthis
Most Popular
Hot Topics

...
英超| 唐山市| 邳州市| 光山县| 邵武市| 库伦旗| 中西区| 平武县| 德州市| 怀来县| 凤翔县| 荆门市| 定襄县| 镇远县| 广丰县| 屏东县| 崇阳县| 博野县| 高要市| 怀柔区| 龙川县| 左云县| 岑溪市| 辽宁省| 韶关市| 紫云| 禹州市| 昌平区| 修水县| 油尖旺区| 益阳市| 皮山县| 东海县| 江门市| 玛纳斯县| 滨海县| 平远县| 石河子市| 龙江县| 广德县| 吴川市|