A windfall tax “will bring about job losses”, the energy industry has said.
Deirdre Michie, chief executive of Offshore Energies UK, which represents the offshore oil and gas industry, said their supply chain is “really worried” about the implications of a windfall tax, which is expected to be announced today.
“That will directly impact manufacturing in this country,” she said.
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“It will undermine our supply chain and it will bring about job losses.”
She said “we need to wait to see what the details are” but “this isn’t feeling good, to have this unexpected surprise on a sector that has been committed to working positively with the government on the security of energy supply and on the energy transition”.
She said history shows that a windfall tax “doesn’t work” because it undermines investment.
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She defended increases in profits saying “they come on the back of two years of significant losses by this sector”, pointing to the impact of COVID-19.
“At a time when the country needs to really focus on its security of energy supply and the energy transition, we have been arguing for stability and predictability in terms of the fiscal regime that is working,” she said.
“It is generating significant returns for the Treasury that they can then use to address the consumer crisis, but at the same time, can give the kind of investor confidence that’s needed to keep investing in oil and gas and underpin the energy transition.”
