The Monaco resident and chemical industry magnate is redirecting billions in investments towards more favourable markets, denouncing Britain’s unstable fiscal regime.
A fiscal regime among “one of the most unstable in the world”
The INEOS conglomerate, led by Monaco resident and owner of Manchester United and OGC Nice Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has halted all investment in the United Kingdom, diverting £3 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’s transformation into “one of the most unstable fiscal regimes in the world from a perspective of natural resources and energy.”
The windfall tax that broke the camel’s back
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 – which soared by 75% between 2021 and 2024 according to official figures – has rendered INEOS’s UK operations economically unsustainable.
The symbolic closure of the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland after a century of activity, starkly illustrates this industrial dead end.
USA, a promised land for energy
“The USA understands the importance of domestic supplies and how you can drive economic growth off the back of it,” 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.
Project ONE: the European exception
INEOS is pressing ahead with its colossal €4 billion investment in Project ONE in Antwerp – 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 “sleepwalking into industrial decline.”
This paradox reflects the philosophy of an industrialist now favouring America’s regulatory stability over what he sees as Britain’s post-Brexit, post-Labour unpredictability.