Donald Trump has said the UK is making "a very big mistake" with its oil and gas policy and has urged Prime Minister Keir Starmer to "open up the North Sea".
In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, the US president-elect shared a link to an Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce story about Apache announcing plans to exit the UK in response to the windfall tax.
"The UK is making a very big mistake. Open up the North Sea. Get rid of windmills!" he said.
The post has almost quadrupled the Chamber's website traffic for the the first few days of 2025, bringing in readers from 118 different countries, including almost 10,000 people from the United States alone.
The Energy Profits Levy (EPL) - the official name for the windfall tax - is a levy on profits made from extracting UK oil and gas.
In the recent Budget, Labour raised the levy to 38% - meaning the total tax rate on the companies is now 78% - and extended it by a further year to 2030.
At the same time, Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, has pledged not to issue any new North Sea drilling licences, arguing they will do nothing to bring down energy bills while only accelerating “the worsening climate crisis”.
Against this backdrop, Apache claimed production had become “uneconomic”.
A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: "Our priority is a fair, orderly and prosperous transition in the North Sea in line with our climate and legal obligations, and we will work with the sector to protect current and future generations of good jobs.
"We need to replace our dependency on unstable fossil fuel markets with clean, homegrown power controlled in Britain, which is the best way to protect billpayers and boost our energy independence."