Natural Gas and Oil: Tax Allowances

(asked on 17th April 2025) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to review the (a) subsidies and (b) tax reliefs available to (i) Rosebank, (ii) Jackdaw and (iii) other new oil and gas developments.


Answered by
James Murray Portrait
James Murray
Chief Secretary to the Treasury
This question was answered on 29th April 2025

The OBR’s most recent forecast of tax revenues from the oil and gas sector is available at the following link: https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-march-2025/.

Similarly, where data is available, estimates of the cost of tax reliefs applicable to the oil and gas sector are at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tax-relief-statistics. This publication contains non-disclosive estimates of the number of claimants for each relief. The UK does not give any subsidies to fossil fuel companies in line with the International Energy Agency’s definition of a fossil fuel subsidy.

A predictable and stable fiscal regime is essential to create the right conditions for investment and to protect jobs in the North Sea. On 5 March 2025, the government published a consultation https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/oil-and-gas-price-mechanism-consultation setting out options for the design of a new permanent oil and gas price mechanism to respond to future oil and gas price shocks, which will replace the Energy Profits Levy (EPL) when that ends in 2030 or earlier if the EPL’s price floor is triggered.

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