(Bloomberg) – Harbour Power Plc, one of many largest unbiased oil and fuel companies within the UK, expects to chop one other 100 jobs after the federal government determined to maintain a windfall tax on North Sea producers.
The Labour authorities final week stated it plans to retain the Power Earnings Levy — launched by the earlier Conservative administration in 2022 — till March 2030. That was blow to grease and fuel producers, which had been pushing for quicker change to the tax to unlock investments, increase manufacturing and maintain jobs.
“The longer term construction of our offshore workforce should adapt to mirror these realities,” Scott Barr, managing director of Harbour Power’s UK enterprise, stated in an emailed assertion. British offshore operations “will proceed to battle to compete for capital inside our international portfolio, whereas the EPL stays,” he stated.
Harbour Power, which accomplished the acquisition of Wintershall Dea’s non-Russian belongings final 12 months, operates in 9 international locations, together with in Norway, Germany, Argentina, Mexico and North Africa. The corporate has already lower about 600 positions within the UK because the EPL was launched, when power costs soared following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
See additionally: Windfall tax stays: UK determination alarms North Sea oil and fuel producers
Many oil and fuel corporations, already struggling declines in manufacturing at mature fields within the British North Sea, have been reassessing their actions after the windfall tax was prolonged and elevated. Final 12 months’s EPL hike to 38% introduced the headline tax charge for the oil and fuel sector to 78%, making Britain much less enticing for funding, based on producers.
