Politicians urged to prepare for North Sea decommissioning costs
UK taxpayers could be liable for a significant share of the North Sea's multi-billion pound decommissioning costs over the next 40 years, according to a new study.
The GMB union said its research into oil and gas fields across the UK Continental Shelf suggested an increasing financial burden will be placed on the Treasury in the form of tax refunds to oil and gas companies.
Average costs for North Sea decommissioning expenditure are growing by 14% a year, with the final figure now expected to be more than #100 billion, said the report.
The GMB called for the UK and Scottish Governments to bring forward an urgent investment programme to get Scottish ports and fabrication yards decommissioning ready''.
The union's Scotland Secretary Gary Smith said: If we don't act fast then it could mean the worst of all worlds: A chance to boost economic and employment prospects gone and the taxpayer paying for the clean-up of the North Sea while other countries profit from decommissioning at our expense.
The taxpayer is sick and tired of dishing out billions of their hard earned money in subsidies to corporations with little to no return, so doing nothing at both the UK and Scottish Government levels by 'leaving it to the market' is simply not an option.
GMB Scotland is very clear that the economic, political and moral arguments for government intervention are compelling and with the Autumn Statement and Scottish Draft Budget on the immediate horizon, the time for politicians to act is now.
All of us are going to pay for North Sea decommissioning so the least that our governments can do is to take the appropriate action to ensure more of our own money is redistributed back into our economy and not into the pockets of largely overseas-based oil and gas contractors.''