Investors still feel the lure of North Sea

Two major M&A deals and a boost from the Autumn 2017 budget may breathe new life into the UKCS

Fresh tax breaks for asset transfers in the UK North Sea are designed to maintain momentum in a fast-maturing oil province, where recent acreage sales have demonstrated there is still investor appetite—at the right price. Philip Hammond, the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced a tax break linked to transfers of North Sea oil-and-gasfields as part of his Autumn budget statement outlining government spending plans for the coming year. From November 2018, the tax history for oil-and-gasfields in the North Sea will be transferable from the seller to the buyer, which may mean that those operating assets at the end of their lives would be entitled to higher tax relief for decommissioning t