A new industry voice gave testimony to U.K. parliamentarians in Scotland today, as politicians try to deduce the value of remaining offshore oil and gas and where it fits in with the country’s strategy for future energy security.

The director of the U.K. industry’s advocacy group, Malcolm Webb of Oil & Gas UK, said he’d tell an Energy and Climate Change Committee’s Aberdeen session Thursday that the industry still satisfies 70 percent of domestic energy demand.

U.K. oil and gas suppliers and oil companies are facing the same bevy economic challenges seen around the world, but Web says the industry’s peril is the country’s: £40 billion ($58 billion) in replaced energy imports are at risk, he says, as is a third of the corporate tax paid into the Royal Treasury that comes from oil industry earnings.

Those earnings face a range of threats, as offshore projects face costs that have doubled since 2004 and taxes on new developments of 50 percent.

“With sources of credit drying up, the amount of capital available has drastically reduced and the falling competitiveness of UK projects means investment could halve in the next two years,” Webb was quoted as saying, adding that exploration was also in jeopardy.

"Worryingly, exploration for and appraisal of new reserves, the lifeblood of the industry, could fall in 2009 to a third of that seen last year,” he added.

According to Oil & Gas UK, 25 billion barrels of oil and gas remain to be extracted offshore Britain, or good enough to satisfy 65 percent of the country’s oil and a quarter of its gas needs for the next 10 years.

Like the advocacies of U.K. independent oil companies who this week stood before parliamentary committee’s to plead woeful financing, Web pleaded for tax relief and spoke of Norway’s tax regime. Norwegian companies enjoy a tax refund for exploration costs in the following tax year.

But Webb was also looking for the end of a “punitive” 20 percent extra charge on corporate tax on all new projects.

"The UK oil and gas industry is not asking for a bailout or handout,” said Webb.

“We have purposely constructed our proposals so there will be no cost to the taxpayer.”