These are the Corporation Tax Revenues since the start of the century –

1999/2000                   £1.148 billion                          2007/2008                  £5.728 billion

2000/2001                   £2.329 billion                         2008/2009                 £9.826 billion

2001/2002                   £3.515 billion                          2009/2010                  £4.998 billion

2002/2003                   £3.662 billion                         2010/2011                   £6.863 billion

2003/2004                   £3.057 billion                         2011/2012                   £8.840 billion

2004/2005                   £3.831 billion                         2012/2013                   £4.393 billion

2005/2006                   £7.307 billion                         2013/2014                   £3.556 billion

2006/2007                   £6.709 billion

What strikes me as obvious, is that the tax breaks given to the industry by the Treasury for them to make major new investments during 2013/14 (the highest for 30 years) was timed deliberately so as to reduce revenues for the year of the vote for Scottish Independence.    

Even so, as can be seen, the figure of £3.556 billion is still higher than that for 1999/2000, as well as 2000/01, 2001/02, and 2003/04, which exposes the oft repeated lie of falling revenues in recent years, with the highest revenues being in 2008/09 and 2011/12.

I have received information from a reliable source that "those in the know" in the oil industry have been told to keep their mouths firmly shut about the extent of oil discoveries west of Shetland until after the Referendum.

See also:  More blogs by John Jappy