YOUR front-page headline (May 26) referring to possible job losses in the UK offshore oil industry as a result of proposed changes in the fiscal regime needs to be understood in its proper context.
A recent article in Petroleum Economist (April 1998) notes: ''There are now over 100 producing oilfields (flowing about 2.5m b/d last year) in UK waters, against less than a third of this number in Norway. But the UK Government's petroleum revenues are little more than half those of the Norwegian Government: in the fiscal year 1996-97, UK state revenues amounted to #3.6bn, against Norway's revenues - made up of taxes, net SDFI cashflow, and Statoil's dividend - of Nkr78bn (#6.4bn).''
The Geneva-based Petroconsultants group was reported last week as saying that the ''current UK fiscal regime is the most investor-friendly of virtually all 120 global regimes analysed'' (Financial Times, May 21).
Fiscal reform, it would appear, is long overdue and should not be used as an excuse to blackmail the UK by representatives of multinational oil companies.
Dr Charles Woolfson,
Faculty of Social Sciences,
University of Glasgow;
Dr Matthias Beck,
University of St Andrews.
May 26.
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