UK taxpayer faces £24bn bill for decommissioning North Sea fields
The bill to the UK taxpayer for decommissioning North Sea oil and gas fields could be twice as high as the UK Treasury forecasts, warns energy intelligence firm Wood McKenzie, which suggests £24bn ($29bn) is more likely than the forecast £16bn. This could turn the industry into a major net expenditure rather than the dependable revenue generator it has been for the UK Treasury since the 1970s. It could also upset the Scottish National Party's push for independence as North Sea oil was branded its main source of revenue for an independent Scotland in the 2014 independence referendum proposal.
The projection comes from Wood Mackenzie, an energy intelligence firm, and is based on analysis of industry plans for the program of well plugging and platform and pipeline dismantling that are impending as the resources reach empty. Since extraction began in the 1970s, North Sea oil has generated £330 billion (US$407bn) in tax revenue, often reducing the impact of recessions.

.@WoodMackenzie highlights the challenges facing the UK a it grapples with the high cost of decommissioninghttp://ow.ly/iAsL307OO9J — Wood Mackenzie (@WoodMackenzie) January 9, 2017​

Decommissioning is expected to take four decades to complete, but while the Treasury forecasts a final bill of £16 billion (US$19bn), Wood Mackenzie believe the true figure will be twice as high, at £24 billion (US$29bn). The report concludes that North Sea oil will be a major net expenditure rather than a source of income for the government until decommissioning is complete.

In total, oil companies will spend £53 billion (US$64bn) from 2017 onward on winding down their North Sea operations, but almost half of that sum will be recouped from the Treasury through tax relief.