UK finance minister Rishi Sunak performs a U-turn on an oil and gas windfall tax
UK hits producers with windfall tax
The Johnson government U-turns again, while still calling for more investment
UK finance minister Rishi Sunak’s commitment that he would hit the country’s upstream sector with an additional tax burden only if they failed to reinvest profits in new projects lasted a whole nine days. On Thursday, he announced what he calls a “targeted energy profits levy”—or a windfall tax by any other name. “The new levy will be charged on the profits of oil and gas companies at a rate of 25pc,” says Sunak. “It will be temporary, and when oil and gas prices return to historically more normal levels, the levy will be phased out, with a sunset clause written into the legislation.” The proposed date on the sunset clause, at which point the new levy will automatically expire, is the end of
Also in this section
13 March 2026
Brussels is again weighing a cap on gas prices amid the Hormuz crisis, but the measure could backfire by deterring the LNG cargoes Europe urgently needs
12 March 2026
Emergency oil stocks provide a last line of defence to oil market shocks, so the IEA’s unprecedented 400m bl release represents something of a double-edged sword
12 March 2026
LPG could rapidly expand access to clean cooking across Africa and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths from indoor air pollution each year, but infrastructure shortages and regulatory barriers are slowing investment and market growth
11 March 2026
Missiles over Dubai and disruption in Hormuz are testing the emirate’s reputation—and shaking the energy hub at the centre of the Gulf economy
