Oil and gas giants have underlined how much money they are making in the North Sea despite warnings that tax hikes would spark an exodus from the area.

As the sector reporting season draws to a close, signs that oil and gas firms continue to rake it in have complicated industry leaders’ efforts to get the Chancellor Rachel Reeves to offer concessions in her forthcoming Budget.

Lobbyists insist Ms Reeves’s decision to increase the rate of the windfall tax in her first Budget last year has been a disaster for an industry that is essential to the UK’s prosperity with some claiming it has made the North Sea “uninvestable”.

As Offshore Energies UK launched a national campaign to highlight the importance of the industry this month, the trade body said every moment counted to champion the role of the North Sea in meeting the country’s energy needs.

The organisation wants the windfall tax to be scrapped from next year. It is also trying to get the Government to drop a proposed ban on the awarding of new North Sea exploration licences.

READ MORE: Oil giant hails North Sea performance as it plans hefty job cuts

Noting the UK will need oil and gas for decades, OEUK chief executive David Whitehouse warned: “Without policy change the UK’s reliance on energy imports will only go up, not down and jobs will be lost.”

He insisted domestic oil and gas production could drive economic growth alongside renewables but only if the current 78% tax rate was reformed.

However, recent results announcements by a series of oil and gas firms will have left some observers wondering if the scare tactics are justified.

Rather than paint a picture of an industry on its knees they have provided indications that some big players are doing very nicely.

The argument for change is based on the claim that the windfall Energy Profits Levy (EPL) introduced in 2022 by the former Conservative Government should be scrapped because firms are not enjoying windfall conditions.

The tax was introduced in response to the surge in oil and gas prices that followed Russia launching its full-scale........

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