Oil and gas heavyweights are expanding in the West of Shetland area amid warnings the windfall tax will prompt firms to slash North Sea investment

A North Sea heavyweight has helped rekindle hopes of a Shetland oil and gas boom amid the uncertainty caused by the windfall tax.

As Rachel Reeves finalises plans for the Budget she will announce next month, oil and gas industry leaders have warned that firms will slash investment in the North Sea if she does not ease the burden on companies significantly.

However, Serica Energy has decided to increase its exposure to the area with a deal that will give it control of a portfolio of assets amassed by publicity-shy tycoon Winston Soosaipillai off Shetland and Aberdeenshire.

The company bought Mr Soosaipillai’s Prax Upstream from the wreckage of the energy conglomerate the entrepreneur developed out of a petrol station he bought in 1999.

London-listed Serica made clear it expects the acquisition will position it to benefit from an increase in activity in an area that has generated lots of excitement.

The acreage West of Shetland is reckoned to contain huge resources. But the region long saw less drilling than others off Scotland because of the challenges firms faced operating in a stormy area that contained limited infrastructure for the production and transportation of oil and gas.

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The deal struck by Serica provides endorsement for the vision of an entrepreneur who saw potential to develop big fields in a geological zone off Shetland that giants had ignored.

Robert Trice started the Hurricane Energy business in a former garden shed in 2005 to focus on the fractured basement which........

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