Sir Jim Ratcliffe<\/a>, has halted all investment in the United Kingdom, diverting \u00a33 billion towards the United States. The radical decision, revealed by The Telegraph and The Times, follows what Brian Gilvary, chairman of INEOS Energy, describes as Britain\u2019s transformation into \u201cone\u00a0of the\u00a0most unstable\u00a0fiscal\u00a0regimes\u00a0in the\u00a0world from a\u00a0perspective of\u00a0natural resources\u00a0and\u00a0energy.\u201d<\/p>\nThe windfall tax that broke the camel\u2019s back<\/p>\n
At the heart of the rupture lies the windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas profits, initially set at 75% by the Conservatives and raised to 78% by Chancellor Rachel Reeves. The surtax, combined with the highest industrial energy prices in Europe \u2013 which soared by 75% between 2021 and 2024 according to official figures \u2013 has rendered INEOS\u2019s UK operations economically unsustainable.<\/p>\n
The symbolic closure of the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland after a century of activity, starkly illustrates this industrial dead end.<\/p>\n
USA, a promised land for energy<\/p>\n
\u201cThe USA understands the importance of domestic supplies and how you can drive economic growth off the back of it,\u201d Gilvary told The Telegraph. The contrast is striking: while America has gone from importer to net exporter of energy, now producing 13 million barrels per day, the UK is watching its North Sea production collapse.<\/p>\n
Project ONE: the European exception<\/p>\n
INEOS is pressing ahead with its colossal \u20ac4 billion investment in Project ONE in Antwerp \u2013 the largest European chemical investment in a generation. The project, now 70% complete and employing 2,500 people, represents, according to Sir Jim Ratcliffe, a solitary act of faith in a Europe he accuses of \u201csleepwalking into industrial decline.\u201d<\/p>\n
This paradox reflects the philosophy of an industrialist now favouring America\u2019s regulatory stability over what he sees as Britain\u2019s post-Brexit, post-Labour unpredictability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Monaco resident and chemical industry magnate is redirecting billions in investments towards more favourable markets, denouncing Britain\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,96517,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-158283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-jim-ratcliffe","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-united-states-of-america","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}