Deltic Energy, run by a Labour campaigner, recently blamed “negative political rhetoric” for its decision to abandon work on one of the most significant discoveries in the North Sea.
The company said it had given up on the Pensacola field because of worsening attitudes to the oil and gas industry amid “ongoing fiscal volatility and negative political rhetoric in the run-up to the July election”.
Jersey Oil and Gas recently also told investors that work on the Buchan field will be postponed for at least a year because of the political uncertainties.
In April, Harbour Energy, the North Sea’s biggest producer, said it would cut a fifth of its workforce because of the windfall tax.
More than 200 oil and gas wells were plugged last year, eight platforms removed and 8,000 tonnes of subsea structures were taken out of the ocean. Another 180 of the UK’s 284 oil and gas fields will close down by the end of the decade.
Northern Producer was built nearly half a century ago as a drilling rig before being converted to an oil and gas processing platform in 1981.