UK group argues for tax cuts if low oil prices remain

Many senior executives believe the oil price will remain low, resulting in calls for revisiting the government's tax policy

The head of UK upstream lobby group Oil & Gas UK, Deirdre Michie, told the Offshore Europe conference in Aberdeen on 9 September that if the oil price does stay lower for longer, as many senior oil executives believe, then "the government needs to revisit the headline tax rate, perhaps". OGUK had just presented the key findings of its latest annual economic report, which showed that the money flowing into offshore projects last year was less than the money flowing back into the UK. But there was recognition too that the offshore needed to bring costs down further and should share the burden. Speaking for Shell UK at a panel session immediately after Michie, Paul Goodfellow said that "we