Shell calls for fiscal stability as Reeves raises windfall taxes

Shell has called on the government to "provide certainty" over the future of the North Sea after the chancellor confirmed plans to toughen its windfall tax on oil and gas profits.

- Jillian Ambrose

Rachel Reeves used Labour's first budget in almost 15 years to raise the headline tax rate of the energy profits levy by 3 percentage points to 78% until 2030, and close the "loophole" left by the previous government that enabled fossil fuel producers to reduce their taxes through investment allowances.

The government also promised to consult the industry early next year on how its oil and gas tax regime after 2030 could encourage investment in the sector and respond to changes in the oil price.

Shell's finance chief, Sinead Gorman, said yesterday: "Elected officials just have to balance budgets in the best way they see fit. We have to look for policies that provide certainty... We invest over the long term."

Shell is one of the last remaining of the "oil majors" in the UK's ageing North Sea basin, where there has been an exodus of oil producers in recent years, in part due to the UK's tax changes including the introduction of the energy profits levy by Rishi Sunak in May 2022.