IBTimes: Labour's Gordon Brown Calls for State Investment to Protect North Sea Oil

The state must step in to protect North Sea oil, which has reached a tipping point where fields could be prematurely mothballed, according to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

In one of his last major speeches before stepping down as an MP, Brown will call for public and private sector partnerships to provide investment in oil fields threatened with premature closure. He also call for tax reductions for the industry in the March budget.

"This is not a normal downturn where we can automatically expect a full recovery when prices rise. One budget initiative would be to recognise the tipping point we are at – the structural damage that could be done if fields are summarily abandoned – and create a North Sea reserve to maintain and upgrade essential infrastructure and to provide last-resort debt finance for companies who want to keep fields open," Brown will say.

Read the full article HERE.