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President Donald Trump called for opening up the North Sea and removing windmills in a Truth Social post on Friday.
The statement adds to his campaign plans to increase oil production during his second term in the White House.
“The U.K. is making a very big mistake. Open up the North Sea. Get rid of Windmills!” Trump wrote early Friday.
The statement included a link to an article from the Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce (UK) entitled “Apace blames windfall tax as it announces plans to exit North Sea.”
The article noted that the Texas-based firm Apache is pulling out of the North Sea due to taxes and other regulations that make the production of oil in the area uneconomical.
“After six months of evaluation, we have concluded that the investment required to comply with these regulations… coupled with the onerous financial impact of the Energy Profits Levy makes production of hydrocarbons beyond the year 2029 uneconomic,” John Christmann, chief executive of Apache parent firm APA, stated.
Russell Borthwick, chief executive at Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce, urged the U.K. government to make changes to avoid future business loss.
“The UK Government must now work with industry swiftly to devise a new progressive tax regime for the North Sea, where the tax rate increases as oil and gas prices rise and decreases when prices fall,” he noted in the article.
“This framework should be predictable, allowing the sector to make future investment plans with certainty and confidence,” he added. “This successor regime cannot wait until beyond 2030, by which time significant damage could be done to our domestic energy industry and its workforce. It should be pursued immediately.”
Newsmax also noted the concerns related to the oil industry in the U.K.
“In October last year, the British government said it would increase a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas producers to 38% from 35% and extend the levy by one year. The government wants to use the revenue from oil and gas to raise funds for renewable energy projects,” it noted on Friday.
“Britain has a target to largely decarbonise its power sector by 2030 which will mean reducing its reliance on gas-fired power plants and rapidly increasing its renewable power capacity,” the report added.