No North Sea Tax Change Before Budget

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury says no tax breaks will be announced for the oil and gas industry before the budget on March 19th.

Published 22nd Jan 2015

Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander is ruling out any change to oil tax before the Budget.

He and the Prime Minister are meeting North Sea industry bosses in Edinburgh this afternoon.

He says UK Government support will be announced in March.

It comes as the boss of BP admits they're expecting the price of oil to stay low for up to three years. Bob Dudley says the oil giant's committed to the North Sea, but he thinks Scotland is going to be "under some stress" until oil prices recover.