Use profits to fight cost of living crisis, oil firms told

THE Business Secretary has ordered the country’s oil and gas giants to reinvest their profits to boost the UK’s energy supply and help to ease the cost of living crisis.

Kwasi Kwarteng has written to energy companies asking them to set out a clear plan on how they will use their huge windfalls to fire up domestic production.

It comes amid continuing sky-high profits being made by the energy firms on the back of surging global energy prices.

Last week Chancellor Rishi Sunak opened the door to a windfall tax on oil and gas companies.

He had previously dismissed the idea saying he did not want to stem investment by those companies in new oil and gas extraction.

Mr Kwarteng said he would also ‘not bend to the will of activists who naively want us to extinguish production’ and repeated the Government’s commitment to North Sea oil and gas.

He added: ‘I want to see a very clear plan from the oil and gas industry to reinvest profits in the North Sea and, importantly, in the clean energy technologies of the future.’