{"id":56081,"date":"2026-06-04T13:11:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T13:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/56081\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T13:11:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T13:11:16","slug":"bp-explores-2billion-offshore-assets-sale-as-windfall-tax-faces-fresh-scrutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/56081\/","title":{"rendered":"BP explores \u00a32billion offshore assets sale as windfall tax faces fresh scrutiny"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest developments follow a few dramatic months for BP, with its chairman ousted over bullying allegations and profits soaring amid the conflict in the Middle East.\"A<\/p>\n

A North Sea oil and gas platform around 100 miles east of Aberdeen(Image: ANDY BUCHANAN\/POOL\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Energy giant BP<\/a> has reportedly explored a near-\u00a32billion sale of its UK offshore<\/a> assets, with the 78% tax regime for oil and gas producers<\/a> facing yet more scrutiny.<\/p>\n

The first major firm to extract oil over six decades ago has held advanced talks with Ithaca Energy<\/a> over the disposal of its North Sea<\/a> business in recent weeks, according to the Financial Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Negotiations collapsed, but the newspaper reports that BP remains interested in divesting the assets and could pursue discussions with other buyers.<\/p>\n

It is seeking to raise $20 billion through asset sales by 2027, and the reported talks have reignited debate over the future of Britain’s offshore energy industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Operators have repeatedly warned that high taxes and policy uncertainty are undermining investment, reports the Express<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The newspaper reported that BP remains open to a sale and could pursue talks with other buyers as part of a wider programme of asset disposals aimed at raising $20 billion by 2027.<\/p>\n

BP is the only oil supermajor yet to take part in the wave of consolidation that has swept through the UK Continental Shelf in recent years.<\/p>\n

Ithaca Energy, one of the basin’s largest independent operators, was viewed as a natural buyer because the companies already share interests in the Vorlich oilfield.<\/p>\n

The latest developments follow a few dramatic months for BP, with its chairman ousted over bullying allegations and profits soaring amid the conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

They also come just weeks after industry executives approached Chancellor Rachel Reeves with proposals for \u00a317.5 billion of investment in projects capable of delivering more than one billion barrels of oil and gas by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n

They offered to proceed with the developments if the Government agreed to bring forward plans to replace the Energy Profits Levy with the Oil and Gas Price Mechanism, a new tax regime intended to provide greater certainty for investors.<\/p>\n

However, The Times<\/a> reported that Ms Reeves backed away from the proposal after conflict involving Iran and disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz sent oil prices sharply higher.<\/p>\n

Explaining the rationale, a Government source told the newspaper: “Oil and gas companies were likely to make ‘significant’ profits because of the conflict, adding: ‘Iran totally changed the dynamics.'”<\/p>\n

The decision sparked a furious response from parts of the industry.<\/p>\n

Criticising the levy, one source said: “Oil and gas companies have had their North Sea profits all but wiped out by a punitive energy profits levy that has made the UK virtually uninvestable.<\/p>\n

“That remains the case under the current price of oil and gas and the government is wrong to conflate much larger global profits with meagre returns in the North Sea.”<\/p>\n

Warning of the financial consequences, the source added: “It would be economic illiteracy on steroids if the government were to choose not to seize a \u00a317 billion investment opportunity by 2030, which is predicated on an early move from EPL to OGPM.<\/p>\n

“Every \u00a31 invested by the oil and gas sector generates around twice that amount in GVA, so the government would effectively be turning down over \u00a330 billion in additional value to the UK economy.”<\/p>\n

Striking a slightly different tone, another industry source said they had been left “very encouraged” following discussions with Reeves because of the Government’s apparent desire to move towards a “more workable, permanent windfall tax”.<\/p>\n

A BP spokesperson declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest developments follow a few dramatic months for BP, with its chairman ousted over bullying allegations and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21198],"tags":[7883,67,6704,3766,222],"class_list":["post-56081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bp","tag-aberdeen","tag-bp","tag-bp-plc","tag-north-sea","tag-offshore"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116692011155084827","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}