By Stuart Payne, chief executive of the North Sea Transition Authority
It’s hard to know what to expect from 7,500 members of the global energy industry gathered in one convention centre in an American town best known for space travel, cowboys, and Tex-Mex food. Of course it was Texans, back in 1970s that came over to Aberdeen, and led the charge for drilling in the North Sea, something that they went on to do in oil and gas provinces around the world. This week however was about the energy world coming to Texas - at what has become known as the Davos of energy.
In a Twitter thread, Greg Muttitt, who works for IISD Energy, accused the North Sea’s biggest producer of counting “all of its windfall tax payments for the next 5 years into this year's accounts”.
Harbour said the windfall tax has “extinguished” profits – but the firm, which is cutting jobs, still announced $300m of shareholder dividends and buybacks today.
“There is a real danger that the UK will be left without the resources and talent to make the energy transition a reality safely," the IADC has warned hundreds of MPs and MSPs.
