Oil industry leaders have delivered another damaging blow to Alex Salmond’s hopes of being handed a swathe of new financial powers by stating they want to continue paying taxes to Westminster.

Oil & Gas UK, whose members include major employers such as Shell, Total and BP, warned administrative costs would increase if separate tax systems were adopted in Scotland and England.

The organisation, which speaks for the oil firms on policy issues, said the industry prefers the “simplicity” of the current arrangements, with corporation and oil taxes paid to the Treasury.

The intervention overshadowed Mr Salmond’s attempts to press David Cameron for more financial powers during a meeting between the Prime Minister and First Minister in Whitehall.

It was also the latest setback for a new campaign group, comprising about 100 businessmen, calling for wide-ranging tax powers to be transferred to Holyrood.

The British Bankers’ Association, whose members include a series of high street banks, has already warned of the “unworkable” administrative hurdles of operating across two tax systems in the UK.

But the opposition of the oil industry, which employs about 225,000 people north of the Border and on which the SNP wants to base an independent Scotland’s economy, is likely to prove much more damaging.

The full story available here : Oil industry rejects separate Scottish taxes - Telegraph