Government to fast track oil and gas industry review recommendations
The government has said this morning that it’ll fast-track implementing recommendations from the Wood Review, a report it commissioned to assess the country’s gas and oil potential.
Sir Ian Wood, report author and former chairman of Wood Group, said the UK’s oil and gas industry should pay for the creation of a new regulator to help firms maximise North Sea fields reserves.
The report, the first strategy assessment of the sector in over 20 years, also recommended the regulator only improve investments if companies can prove they’re exploiting resources to their full.
"I believe industry will have to pay, but in return should be granted appropriate service level agreements," said Wood.
He also recommends the regulator enforce rules for companies to share exploration data more quickly.
Energy secretary Ed Davey commissioned the report last June, saying the sector faced "unprecedented challenges that require new thinking".
Tax revenues from oil and gas in 2012-13 were £4.7bn lower than the year before – a 40 per cent fall.
The government has confirmed it fully backs the recommendations which it’s implementing immediately.
"The UK government can afford to support the industry and make it profitable to extract the increasingly hard-to-reach oil and gas in the North Sea," said Prime Minister David Cameron.
Cameron's expected to reference the review today as he speaks in Aberdeen on the benefits of Scotland staying in the UK.