Consultation outcome

Expert panel terms of reference and outputs

Updated 25 July 2018

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/tax-issues-for-late-life-oil-and-gas-assets/expert-panel-terms-of-reference

1. Aims

By publishing the discussion paper ‘Tax issues for late-life oil and gas assets’, the government is seeking views on how the tax regime could better support getting older, ‘late-life’ assets into the hands of companies willing to invest in them. The government has also established a panel of upstream oil and gas experts to enable a detailed debate on the issues identified in that paper.

The objective of the expert panel is to offer a collection of views on the tax issues identified in ‘Tax issues for late-life oil and gas assets’. This will involve:

  1. Considering whether the scope of the issue is fully captured in ‘Tax issues for late-life oil and gas assets’
  2. Determining whether the issue is affecting transfers of late-life oil and gas assets
  3. Identifying what potential solutions could resolve the issue and facilitate transfers of late-life assets
  4. Considering the feasibility of any potential solutions. This includes comparing against the objectives in paragraph 2.33 of ‘Tax issues for late-life assets’: * any change to the tax regime should only be made if it will deliver a sufficient and proportionate benefit for the UK taxpayer, as well as encouraging innovation and maximising economic recovery * mitigate, as far as practical and achievable, tax-based obstacles to late-life assets transferring to new owners * prevent gaming or commodification of tax history or other tax attributes that could result in greater exposure to the taxpayer * not impose disproportionate administrative complexity for either industry or government * not affect decommissioning obligations under existing legislation and treaties

The findings from the expert panel meetings will not be binding on the government. Any proposals from the panel will be considered alongside the other responses to ‘Tax issues for late-life assets’. The government will subsequently present its findings at the Autumn Budget 2017.

2. Membership

The expert panel will consist of representatives from the following bodies:

  • HM Treasury (Chair)
  • HMRC
  • Oil & Gas Authority
  • BP
  • ConocoPhillips
  • CW Energy
  • EnQuest
  • Ernst & Young
  • ExxonMobil
  • Ineos
  • Oil & Gas UK
  • Premier Oil
  • Shell
  • Total
  • UK Oil Industry Tax Committee

3. Agenda setting

The first meeting agenda will be circulated two weeks before the panel’s inaugural session. Subsequent agendas and any papers circulated in good time ahead of future meetings.

4. Logistics

It is proposed that there will be approximately 4 meetings on a monthly basis, with the first meeting in April.

The meetings will be held in Aberdeen and London, and connected by video conference.

5. Secretariat function

Governmental representatives will act as secretariat, and will prepare and circulate minutes to panel members following the meetings.

6. Outputs

The expert panel met four times. The minutes of the meetings held on 20 April 2017, 22 June 2017, 6 July 2017 and 1 August are available online, as well as a supplementary example of possible TTH mechanism and a supplementary example of possible TTH administration issues.

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