Based on research led by Professor Alex Kemp at the University of Aberdeen and reported in Energy Voice today:
The North Sea energy industry could recover another two billion barrels of oil if operators can collaborate on untapped discoveries, according to a new study Aberdeen University has researched more than 400 undeveloped offshore discoveries in the UK, holding a combined 6.7billion barrels of oil, of which many are too small to be economically produced on their own. However, the study has shown that developing several fields in “clusters” with shared infrastructure could mean 1.9billion barrels can be recovered at today’s $60 oil price using modern technology.
Of course, Scotland would only benefit from this if it can be taxed by a Scottish Treasury. For a reminder of how the Eton Schoolboys in the Civil Service and on the boards of the oil companies would collude to have it ‘spaffed up a wall’:
London is giving away Scotland’s oil revenues
Posted on September 3 2018
As the FT has reported this morning:
Tom Mitro, who managed Chevron’s taxation and financial planning in the North Sea in the 1990s, said [a new tax] scheme could deprive the Treasury of more than £3bn in tax over the next decade.
“Overall impact on the Exchequer of [the transferable tax history scheme] could range from virtually zero to roughly [a] £3bn [plus] reduction in tax receipts over the next 10 years depending on oil prices and [the] number of asset sales and decommissioning [of North Sea platforms and pipelines],” he said in a research paper prepared for Global Witness, the non-governmental organisation.
But why does the Treasury care? If it assists the spin that Scotland cannot survive on its own, I suspect that’s considered a price worth paying. And I would not be at all surprised if that is part of the political motivation for this.
Talking-up Scotland 
It will be “spaffed up the wall” it’s what Westminster does with Scottish assets. Do not forget for every £100 of oil revenue generated Scotland receives £8, Wales £4, Northern Ireland £2 – England gets £86 based on population size (ONS report for HMRC) England needs all Scottish revenue to service the 2 trillion pound debt this clusterbourach of a Westminster government has run up protecting their chums in the city?
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Craig, your comment needs to be plastered on billboards up and down the length of Scotland during the campaign for Independence.
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Point 28 – Put this link into your browser address bar and you show get the pdf report – https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/803472/Disaggregated_tax_and_NICs_receipts_-_information_and_analysis.pdf. Point 28
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Craig, could you write a piece for us explaining the tax receipts paper you link to below? If not do you know someone who could?
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Hi John, I am not that clever.I point people to page 12 total tax collected in 2017-18 from Scotland = £45,120 Bn. Page 13 point 28 North Sea revenues apportioned etc. There is another ONS HMRC report called ‘Block Grant Transparency’ (link below) I say that our block grant is about £30 Bn so £15 Bn is retained by Westminster on our behalf and spent on things like Trident, HS2, London crosslink, repairs to Big Ben, Houses of Parliament. I did say to one couple how about all tax generated in New Zealand is collected by Australian Government they then give 75% back to New Zealand and spend the rest on doing up Sydney Opera House? https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/767101/Block_Grant_Transparency_2018_PDF_1.pdf
I contacted Craig Dalzell of CommonSpace for help -https://www.commonspace.scot/authors/craig-dalzell
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Craig Fraser, this is the precise reason why Westminster is so determined that Scotland will NOT become independent. It is the oil and gas resources that underpin sterling. When it goes when Scotland becomes independent then the pound will be in the grubber. It is not just oil, it includes the 25% of the renewables potential of the whole of Europe, and the fish (51% of UK territory is Scotland, when the surrounding seas are taken into account).
The Tories want to keep it to give to international financial elites. Labour wants it because they think the UK state will help them redistribute it to the English working class. The UK state has always existed to support the English landowning and City interests and always, eventually causes Labour to ‘fail’. 13 years of ‘new’ Labour policies were dismantled within a couple of years by Cameron, Osborne and Clegg (and the lapdog Jo Swinson).
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And the rest.
The year before last we were told by the oil industry that there was enough oil in the North Sea to last another 25 years.
Many of the Lords in the House of Lords are on the board of the oil companies given contracts by England’s Westminster to explore and extract oil and gas from Scottish waters, some have been chairman.
The place is rotten to the core Westminster and the House of Lords
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