UK: Rescue plan for North Sea jobs

Government package to help cash-strapped oil firms may release millions to embattled industry

THE government is finalising the terms of a rescue package for North Sea oil firms amid warnings that more than half the companies in the sector will fail this year and put tens of thousands out of work.

The plan could include several unprecedented measures, including immediate release of several hundred million pounds held by the Treasury in accumulated tax credits and an offer to groups that won licences in last year


The industry boomed with the rising oil price of recent years but is contracting now, caught out by the $100 drop in the price of oil and an inability to raise new funds from the closed debt and equity markets.

Jim Hannon, managing director of North Sea oil consultancy Hannon Westwood, predicts a bloodbath.