LONDON, March 18 (Reuters) - British finance minister GeorgeOsborne on Wednesday cut oil taxes and announced the creation ofan investment allowance, an attempt to breathe new life into thebattered North Sea oil and gas industry.
"It's clear to me that the fall in the oil price poses apressing danger to the future of our North Sea industry - unlesswe take bold and immediate action," Osborne told parliament inhis annual budget speech.
Investments in Britain's North Sea oil and gas sector, wortharound 5 billion pounds ($7.33 billion) a year to thegovernment, have stalled as record-high costs and a recentplunge in oil prices have made the mature basin one of the leastattractive in the world.
Osborne announced a reduction in a supplementary tax chargeto 20 from 30 percent and also unveiled a cut in the petroleumrevenue tax to 35 percent from next year, down from 50 percentnow.
Oil output from North Sea fields has slipped to its lowestlevel since production began in the mid-1970s.
North Sea investments worth around 25 billion pounds arecurrently unsanctioned as companies have been waiting for thegovernment to intervene.($1 = 0.6825 pounds) (Reporting by Karolin Schaps and Sarah Young; Editing by AndrewOsborn)