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* Britain keen to show Scots it cares about industry
* Pledges new industry regulator and licensing changes
* Says changes will safeguard jobs and investment
* Scots to vote on independence on Sept. 18
By Andrew Osborn
LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The British government on Mondaypromised to make it easier and quicker to unlock hard-to-extractNorth Sea gas and oil as part of its efforts to persuadeScotland to remain part of the United Kingdom.
Acting on its first review of the industry for two decades,published on Monday, Britain said it would immediately set up anew industry-funded regulator and in future award productionlicences on the basis of recovering the maximum amount of oil asa whole rather than just from each individual licence block.
The reforms, which will see a push to cut red tape and shareinfrastructure and geophysical information better, could beworth up to 200 billion pounds ($330 billion) in the next twodecades and allow the industry to recover 3-4 billion extrabarrels of oil, the government said.
The report - drawn up by Ian Wood, former chairman of oilservices company Wood Group - said Britain urgently needed itsoil and gas companies to pay for a new regulator to encourageindustry collaboration and counter plunging production.
Its findings could act as a template for how to developother mature resource fields in the world.
The North Sea is thought to contain billions of barrels ofoil that is increasingly difficult to extract, and with manyplatforms and pipelines coming to the end of their workinglives, time is running out to get at them.
"I promise we will continue to use the UK's broad shouldersto invest in this vital industry," Prime Minister David Cameronsaid in a statement.
While visiting an oil platform in Scotland, he said:"Because we're a top ten economy we can afford the taxallowances, the investment, the long-term structure that isnecessary to make sure we can recover as much from the North Seaas possible and that's good for everybody."
The government's decision will affect operators such as BP, Statoil S<TL.OL< and Shell, who are expected tofoot the bill for the new regulator.
The government hopes that higher production will allow it toshore up tax revenues and cut Britain's dependence on energyimports.
POLITICAL DIMENSION
The shake-up, which coincided with Cameron's first fullcabinet meeting in Scotland, has far-reaching politicalramifications.
Scots will vote on whether to end three centuries of unionwith England on Sept. 18 and the future of Scotland's oil andgas industry has featured heavily in a campaign in whichpro-independence nationalists are trailing.
Symbolically, Cameron will later on Monday hold a cabinetmeeting in Aberdeen, the heart of the UK oil industry, a gesturemeant to back his assertion that Britain's unity enables it tomaximise the benefits of Scotland's North Sea oil and gas.
Ed Davey, the energy minister, said the new measures weredesigned to address what he called "unprecedented challenges",noting that North Sea tax revenues for 2012/13 were over 40percent lower than the year before.
But he said Scotland, as part of the UK, was protected fromsuch revenue falls and shielded from oil price volatility thathe said could dramatically affect a small country's budget.
Despite the official government forecaster predicting lowerrevenues in the next three years, he said: "Instead of needingto cut spending the Scottish Government will see its budget riseby more than 300 million pounds. Scotland benefits as part ofthe UK from being able to pool resources."
The oil and gas industry employed 450,000 people in the UKand should do so for years to come, he said.
But Alex Salmond, the leader of the pro-independenceScottish National Party (SNP), argued on Monday that oil and gaspolicy would be more stable in an independent Scotland and thatScots would benefit more personally from its riches.
He said there had been 16 tax changes in the North Sea in 10years and 14 oil ministers in 17 years.
"People in Scotland and Aberdeen in particular just lookacross to Norway, where a country smaller than Scotland and moreoil and gas dependant than Scotland has handled its resourcesinfinitely better than Westminster (the British government),"Salmond told BBC TV.
"The reason they (UK politicians) want to hang on toScotland's resources is that they've done so well out of themfor the last 40 years."
On its own, Salmond said an independent Scotland could buildup a wealth fund like Norway's which he said had put aside100,000 pounds ($166,900) a head "for every man, woman andchild".
"If we emulate what the Norwegians have done then we won'tdo too badly.
