The new regime of reliefs should be good news for companies like Venture Production, the archetypal “scavenger” stock looking for oil and gas in the North Sea in fields long abandoned by the big players.

Venture last year paid total taxes of £107 million on operating profits of £231 million and revenues of £495 million. That compares to taxes paid of just £5 million for years ago when it made profits of £23 million on revenues of £81 million.

Patently this is the type of company Darling is trying to encourage. It produces around 45,000 barrels a day — 16 million barrels a year — from its reserves in excess of 200 million barrels.
And it is one of the companies that is searching for and finding more.

Only this spring it announced new finds in Cygnus, a field overlooked by its previous owner Tullow Oil which sold it to concentrate on exploring in Africa.

Such companies and such finds indicate the North Sea can still generate excitement.

News of the Cygnus find coincided with a swoop on 22% of Venture's shares by British Gas group Centrica in what could yet turn out to be a £1.25 billion takeover.