A £1.6billion investment in the North Sea will now go ahead on the back of Chancellor George Osborne’s announcement yesterday.
Canadian-listed Talisman Energy had been in discussions with the UK Treasury over incentives for its central North Sea Montrose area redevelopment project, which will support more than 2,000 jobs.
It would see a new platform being linked to its existing Montrose platform to unlock two new fields — Cayley and Shaw — and 40million barrels of oil.
It would also include a new drilling rig to tap other areas around the platform and enable others to use the facilities. Under the new brown field allowance, profits from the project will now be sheltered from an additional tax levied on oil and gas producers.
Geoff Holmes, UK senior vice-president at Talisman, said: “This announcement represents a major step forward in sanctioning the £1.6billion Montrose area redevelopment project.
“The project is expected to create or support over 2,000 UK jobs.”