Despite tax concessions being offered to North Sea oil and gas producers, it is estimated that British oil and gas manufacturers have lost out on £10bn in contracts in the last two years.
The contracts, representing 10,000 jobs, were been placed with foreign companies, including those in Dubai, Korea, Holland and Italy.
Dennis Clark, chairman of OGN Group, a UK oil and gas construction contractor based in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, has written a letter to the 12 north-east regional MPs seeking their support for the British fabrication industry and urging the government to promote UK content.
‘There is no policy requiring tax benefits to be reinvested in this country. The UK is the only oil and gas province without a positive policy favouring local content,’ Clark said in a statement.
OGN, one of four oil platform manufacturers left in Britain, lost out to a Korean rival in a North Sea contract in December last year.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change say that to place rules forcing operators to source UK content would be incompatible with EU laws. Clark, however, argues that the fabrication industry will diminish unless ministers ensure government policy for local content.
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