The UK oil and gas industry has all but forgiven the Conservative-led government its 2011 tax hike, and says production could rise to 2mn b/d of oil equivalent (boe/d) by 2017. Industry group OGUK's optimism comes amid a sharp decline in the gov- ernment's North Sea tax take - OGUK estimates that total production tax pay- ments for this tax year will be down by 35pc at ￡7.3bn ($11.1bn), after a 14pc drop in UK oil output in 2012. The gov- ernment says lower production contrib- uted to a 0.3pc fall in fourth-quarter GDP from the previous three months.
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