North Sea operators are facing demands to explain alleged links to tax havens, according to reports.
It comes after the biggest single producer in the UKCS in recent weeks, China’s CNOOC, was revealed to be running its UK business through company registered in the British Virgin Islands.
The Herald has reported that a number of other oil and gas firms working in the North Sea have corporate structures which include subsidiaries registered in low-tax “offshore” jurisdictions.
A report from the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has claimed oil major Chevron uses “aggressive tax minimisation” while also alleging the company had $32billion in offshore accounts and hundreds of offshore subsidiaries.
Chevron’s UK arm has claimed the reports are “incorrect”.
Scottish organiser of Unite Pat Rafferty said there should be independent action to check the accounts of operators.
A spokesman for Chevron said: “Chevron fully complies with all tax laws relating to its North Sea UK interests and the allegations in the report are incorrect. Over the past decade Chevron’s North Sea related activities have generated a tax contribution to the U.K Exchequer of more than £3.5 billion. Corporation Tax from North Sea profits is ring fenced by law in the UK and untaxed profits are not taken outside of the UK.
“In the UK, Chevron North Sea Ltd discloses its annual tax payments through publicly available filings, including in the UK’s first ever Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative report, published April 2016.”
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