Pay more tax to protect markets – van Beurden

Outgoing Shell chief sees higher government take as a much lesser threat to the oil and gas industry

Ben van Beurden, CEO of Shell, dismissed on Tuesday suggestions that energy market mechanisms by themselves can tackle current “unprecedented” moves in end-user prices. But he told the Energy Intelligence Forum that the audience should accept paying higher taxes to fund state interventions on behalf of hard-pressed consumers as a lesser evil than governments seeking solutions in modifying the functioning of wholesale markets. “Voices are there saying, ‘let the market take care of it; the best remedy against high energy prices is high energy prices,’” says van Beurden. “I am afraid I do not subscribe to that view. You simply cannot have a market that behaves in such a way… that it is going to