by Alan Dick, energy and industry director, Johnston Carmichael
There’s a general view that we should consign the year gone by to history. In oil and gas, and the wider energy industry, 2020 can more accurately be viewed as another challenging time for a sector accustomed to being beleaguered.
Climate change and the target of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2035 is having a significant impact on the energy sector, and that trend will continue for the foreseeable future.
Eighty-eight north and north-east jobs have been saved after industrial cleaning and environmental-waste management specialist MSIS plunged into administration and was swiftly acquired by a local rival.
Peter Courtney, international tax specialist at Johnston Carmichael, looks ahead to the possible tax changes that will affect Scottish businesses operating internationally in a post-Brexit landscape.
Concerns over the potential impact of the Forties pipeline shutdown added a bump in the road of what had been a far more positive 2017 – with a more stable oil price supporting performance across the North Sea quietly welcomed.
Some businesses may have won a delay in the Spring Budget, but others now must embrace technology or face the wrath of the tax man, writes Susie Walker
Oil and gas companies have made significant in-roads into reducing the cost of production, but this is in the context of some of the highest operating costs in the world. With the oil price falling from the highs of above $100 a barrel in the summer of 2014, those cuts alone cannot go far enough and real fiscal stimulus is needed to drive renewed investment.