Member Info for DennisThePennis

Such punitive taxation only applies to companies responsible for providing 75% of the UK's energy. They're not as important as banks who are still allowed to make a profit.

I hope you're right but I fear our dumb politicians will continue to favour populism over what's best for the country. It seems they will happily destroy the industry and sacrifice tens of thousands of jobs (if not hundreds of thousands) to show a few dumb voters that they're being tough on greedy, polluting oil companies and leading the green transition to save the world. The UK O&G industry will go the same way as mining and manufacturing, and we'll be importing our dirty hydrocarbons from overseas.

But as I say, I hope you're right, and I sincerely hope the SQZ BoD has some tricks up its sleeve.

Surprised, who would borrow to invest when they can't make a profit? It looks like total tax take is going to increase to 78% while investment allowance will reduce from 92% to 48%. Apologies if I've got those numbers slightly wrong, but it's almost immaterial. Servicing debt and making a profit will be impossible.

Surprised, that's all in the past.

Things have changed.

Gas price has plummeted yet the "windfall" tax remains and will be increased by Labour while tax allowances will be reduced.

There will be no incentive for operators to invest or even continue operating in the UK.

Really hoping Serica announces something more positive soon (like a decent overseas acquisition or a mega special dividend before it winds up the company).

NewKOTB, for the Tailwind deal I was agnostic. I saw a lot of criticism on this board, some of which I agreed with, but I trusted that the BoD had crunched all the numbers and taken account of all the risks. Clearly my trust was misplaced.

My main concern was why we were investing exclusively in the UK with so much uncertainty and risk around taxation. I believed we should have diversified overseas (and still should).

A lot of PIs on here said similar things but we have been ignored. The IIs who voted through the deal weren't investing their own money so I guess they weren't so worried.

If it's not already too late, I hope the BoD will start to take heed of PI concerns since we have more skin in the game than the big boys.

What a shtishow.

SQZ and other O&G companies need to cease production until HMG gets its shti together.

This is insane. We're supposed to be living in an advanced, democratic, free market economy, and major companies of critical national importance are trying to guess whether the government at the end of this year will destroy their business or merely make it unprofitable. SQZ and other oil and gas companies need to quit the UK and let whatever pathetic excuse for a government is in charge explain to the people what happened.

If Labour proceed with their "plans" as stated, there is no alternative for oil and gas companies operating in the UK. They would have to cease their UK operations, moving their interests overseas.

In Serica's case, they have no recent operating experience outside the UK, so the first step would be to invest as an NOV partner.

I sincerely hope the BoD has a contingency plan ready.

Starmer is still claiming all UK electricity will be carbon-free by 2030. Anyone with half a brain cell knows this is impossible yet he doesn't get challenged by the media.

Same for their ridiculous plan to introduce a 'proper windfall tax' to raise £11 billion. An imbecile knows more tax will raise less revenue - and ultimately bankrupt the industry, leading to huge job losses and higher energy costs - yet again he doesn't get challenged. Staggering.

Some positive publicity...

https://www.upstreamonline.com/production/uk-independent-soon-to-kick-off-north-sea-campaign/2-1-1593537

This inspires some confidence. Reassuring to see directors walk the walk, aligning their interests with shareholder interests. 👍

Infor, reading through the details you have posted, it seems that the BoD may have reneged on their fiduciary responsibilities.

I'm surprised so many SHs would have been caught out, especially IIs.

Hoping the new Chairman and CEO run this company in the interest of shareholders, not their own bank balances.

I'm guessing lots of buy orders were triggered when the SP dropped below £2, supporting the SP for a while. Once they were all fulfilled, most trades were sells on the back of the CEO announcement and general negative sentiment around O&G.

Hoping the floor has now been reached.

The dividend yield just keeps improving 😠

(Assuming the dividend is maintained)

NewKOTB, I agree but the fact that they're putting these ideas forward indicates the quality of people who are about to be running this country. Red Ed is clueless but he's going to be in charge of energy.

Sounds like they're going to rely heavily on EPL offsets to pay for investments. Labour are saying they're going to remove these offsets when they get into government.

Struggling to see any upside in the UK. Overseas is the only way to go.

MF is taking a lot of flack but investment decisions are made by the BoD, not just the CEO. This BoD needs to up its game pronto.

Just reading about Ed Miliband's plans to introduce a "proper windfall tax" when Labour get into power.

He's proposing to increase the EPL from 75% to 78%, backdate it, and remove tax allowances for investments.

This would certainly be the final nail in the coffin for the UK O&G industry. I guess he's happy to sacrifice the 200,000 jobs that would be lost along with all that tax revenue.

The UK currently relies on oil and gas for 75% of its energy. 50% of our O&G is produced domestically.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/02/03/most-north-sea-oil-gas-projects-unviable-under-labour/

With a 30% drop in SP since we overpaid for Tailwind, I'm hoping for a positive ops update and/or news about a better M&A deal in the pipeline. I suspect we'll get neither.

Clearly something is about to happen. New directors, new Chairman, new CFO, new RBL facility, and now new CEO being lined up.

If it's good for Mercuria as a major shareholder, surely it will be good for other shareholders.

Or am I being naive?

NQM, I agree that the TW deal made sense in some respects but I think we overpaid. Shares were too heavily diluted.

Like you, I'm hoping the next deal is not in the UK which is increasingly looking like a basket case. I'd prefer no deal to a bad deal, with efforts focused on maximising FCF from existing assets to allow payment of more chunky dividends.