Sir Ian Wood and Martin Gilbert have issued a joint statement on the Energy Profts Levy, ahead of this week’s Budget on Wednesday:
“In our previous careers we have both been extremely fortunate to lead successful, globally recognised businesses, Wood Group and Aberdeen Asset Management, both proudly established in our home city of Aberdeen.
It is an achievement that simply wouldn’t have been possible without a resilient and talented local workforce that were instrumental in building the blocks for rapid growth and success.
It is that very same world-class skills base that the city, and wider region, is in serious jeopardy of losing if decisive action is not taken.
There is no doubt that North East Scotland, given its renowned subsea engineering prowess and its proximity to an unrivalled pipeline of projects, is ideally positioned to be a genuine global leader in the commercialisation of offshore renewables when they, in time, become available. That is a future that should excite us all.
But it is a future that can only be realised if we have a critical mass in companies located here to deliver them and, right now, we are losing them, and the people they employ, at an alarming rate.
This is, by and large, due to the punitive fiscal and regulatory regime endured by the oil and gas industry which is haemorrhaging investment in the North Sea with the UK relying ever more on carbon and costly imports from overseas.
Given we are projected to need oil and gas in our energy mix up to and beyond 2050, a point recognised by the government themselves, it is surely common sense to incentivise the production of our own domestic supply. And yet the Windfall Tax has achieved the exact opposite whilst simultaneously delivering a massive decline in revenues for the Treasury compared to what it was intended to raise.
Put bluntly, the current position is economically and environmentally incoherent.
We therefore urge the Chancellor to take three key steps in the upcoming Budget and the days that follow: bring an end to the unjust windfall tax in the next financial year, approve shovel ready projects in the UKCS in the coming weeks and reverse the position on its ban on oil and gas licensing immediately.
These measures would inject much needed economic growth in the UK economy and deliver the fair and just transition that has been promised for the very same workers who will be critical in achieving the UK’s energy security for generations to come.
We must act now.
Sir Ian Wood & Martin Gilbert”
Martin Gilbert stood down from Aberdeen Standard Investments in 2020 as the longest serving CEO in the FTSE.
Sir Ian retired in 2012 after 45 years at Wood Group (CEO and latterly Executive Chairman) leaving it as a company with 35,000 employees in 50 countries.
