2015年经济学人 北海油气和预算 夕阳工业?

North Sea oil and the budget

Priming the pumps

For the oil and gas industry, tax reductions were overdue¹

Sunset industry?

AMONG the tax cuts announced in his budget on March 18th, the chancellor² of the exchequer³, George Osborne,

laid out big reductions for oil and gas companies operating in the North Sea.

The previous tax rates for companies operating in the older fields sometimes amounted to a punitive⁴ 80%.

Now the petroleum⁵ revenue tax will be reduced from 50% to 35%, and a supplementary⁶ corporation tax will come down from 30% to 20%.

The government will also invest in new seismic⁷ surveys in the more remote areas of the North Sea.

Altogether, Mr Osborne hopes that these measures will boost production there by 15% by the end of the decade.

Oil and gas companies lobbied furiously for these changes, and they will certainly be welcomed,

not least around the industry's capital of Aberdeen, where some 160,000 people rely on the sector⁸.

Mr Osborne should not expect much gratitude⁹, though. Some firms have yet to forgive him for raising taxes in the first place.

In 2011 the chancellor surprised everyone by increasing the supplementary tax by 12 points to 32% (afterwards lowered to 30%).

This might have netted the hard-up chancellor a windfall of about 2 billion (3 billion) but, so argue many in the industry,

the tax rise also deterred¹⁰ companies from sinking any more money into an ageing basin where it had already become very expensive to operate.

With margins¹¹ wafer thin, North Sea oil and gas production, which had been falling steadily¹² since its peak in 1999,

plummeted¹³ between 2011 and 2013, before recovering slightly last year. Just as importantly, new exploration has crawled almost to a halt.

This year it is expected that as few as eight new exploratory wells might be drilled.

One consequence is that the once mighty¹⁴ North Sea oil and gas sector has become increasingly marginal to the overall British economy.

In 2011-12 North Sea tax revenues totalled 10.9 billion, but in 2013-14 they had shrunk to just 4.7 billion.

Furthermore, although there might have been a case for a windfall tax in 2011 when the oil price was high,

averaging 111 for a barrel of Brent crude over the year, since last June the price has tumbled. It is now down to about 55 a barrel.

This has put even more pressure on margins and profits, so much so that, over the past six months,

companies have been cutting wages and laying off hundreds of workers in a rushed attempt to cut costs. Overall, according to Oil and Gas UK,

an industry lobby group, the sector lost 5.3 billion last year, the worst performance since the 1970s,

when the colossal¹⁵ investment in new platforms and other infrastructure¹⁶ preceded the flow of oil and gas.

With the price of oil expected to stay at its current level for some time,

both employers and employees know that only by drastically reducing operating costs in the North Sea over the long term can the basin remain profitable enough to attract investment,

let alone compete with less costly¹⁷ deep-water basins in the Gulf¹⁸ of Mexico and off the west coast of Africa.

With oil over 100 a barrel, the industry got used to living high on the hog¹⁹, but those days are gone.

In this respect, the tax cuts are helpful, but hardly crucial. Cutting costs will prove far more important.

1 overdue   

adj.过期的，到期未付的；早该有的，迟到的

参考例句：

• The plane is overdue and has been delayed by the bad weather.飞机晚点了，被坏天气耽搁了。
• The landlady is angry because the rent is overdue.女房东生气了，因为房租过期未付。

2 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

3 exchequer   

n.财政部；国库

参考例句：

• In Britain the Chancellor of the Exchequer deals with taxes and government spending.英国的财政大臣负责税务和政府的开支。
• This resulted in a considerable loss to the exchequer.这使国库遭受了重大损失。

4 punitive   

adj.惩罚的，刑罚的

参考例句：

• They took punitive measures against the whole gang.他们对整帮人采取惩罚性措施。
• The punitive tariff was imposed to discourage tire imports from China.该惩罚性关税的征收是用以限制中国轮胎进口的措施。

5 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

6 supplementary   

adj.补充的，附加的

参考例句：

• There is a supplementary water supply in case the rain supply fails.万一主水源断了，我们另外有供水的地方。
• A supplementary volume has been published containing the index.附有索引的增补卷已经出版。

7 seismic   

a.地震的，地震强度的

参考例句：

• Earthquakes produce two types of seismic waves.地震产生两种地震波。
• The latest seismic activity was also felt in northern Kenya.肯尼亚北部也感觉到了最近的地震活动。

8 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

9 gratitude   

adj.感激，感谢

参考例句：

• I have expressed the depth of my gratitude to him.我向他表示了深切的谢意。
• She could not help her tears of gratitude rolling down her face.她感激的泪珠禁不住沿着面颊流了下来。

10 deterred   

v.阻止，制止( deter的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I told him I wasn't interested, but he wasn't deterred. 我已告诉他我不感兴趣，可他却不罢休。
• Jeremy was not deterred by this criticism. 杰里米没有因这一批评而却步。 来自辞典例句

11 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

12 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

13 plummeted   

v.垂直落下，骤然跌落( plummet的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Share prices plummeted to an all-time low. 股票价格暴跌到历史最低点。
• A plane plummeted to earth. 一架飞机一头栽向地面。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

15 colossal   

adj.异常的，庞大的

参考例句：

• There has been a colossal waste of public money.一直存在巨大的公款浪费。
• Some of the tall buildings in that city are colossal.那座城市里的一些高层建筑很庞大。

16 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

17 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

18 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

19 hog   

n.猪；馋嘴贪吃的人；vt.把…占为己有，独占

参考例句：

• He is greedy like a hog.他像猪一样贪婪。
• Drivers who hog the road leave no room for other cars.那些占着路面的驾驶员一点余地都不留给其他车辆。