Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will offer financial incentives to the UK oil and gas sector to stimulate growth.

“Driving Investment: a plan to reform the Oil and Gas Fiscal regime”, published at Autumn Statement 2014, set out a long-term plan for the future of the oil and gas fiscal regime to ensure the North Sea continues to attract investment and safeguard the future of this vital national asset.

Delivering on this, the Chancellor announced a radical package of reforms in March, including an immediate cut to the rate of the Supplementary Charge, from 30% to 20%, which is already in effect; a reduction to Petroleum Revenue Tax, from 50% to 35%, from January 2016; and the introduction of a new Investment Allowance to support investment in the UK Continental Shelf. The government also provided £20m of funding for a programme of seismic surveying in 2015-16 to boost exploration in under-explored areas of the basin.

This package is worth £1.3bn over the next 5 years and is expected to deliver at least £4bn of additional investment and increase production by 15% by 2019, the equivalent of 0.1% of GDP.