Exclusive:SNP given 100 days to reveal plan to save North Sea jobs by industry leader

Scotland’s oil and gas industry has demanded the new SNP government sets out its “full-throated support” for the sector in the coming days.

North Sea bosses are also challenging the newly-appointed ministers to publish an energy strategy within the next 100 days, as the SNP begins its fifth consecutive term in office.

Earlier this week First Minister John Swinney appointed his cabinet and downgraded the energy portfolio to junior minister level under Stephen Gethins.

Disused North Sea oil rigs stacked up in the Cromarty Firth during a downturn in the sector in 2018 | Getty Images

David Whitehouse, chief executive of Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), said he is pleased MSPs who support and understand the energy sector have been appointed to government - but that ministers need to prioritise their support for the industry.

Mr Whitehouse told The Scotsman recent geopolitical events present Scotland with “a number of challenges”.

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He said: “We have not seen the full impact of what’s happening in the Middle East and Iran finding its way through to the UK and Scottish economy.

“Spending targets are tight in the Scottish economy and we are sitting here with 700,000 people of working age in Scotland who are not employed.

“There is a clear challenge to address that - the government needs to be focused on growth and supporting Scottish industry.

“That should be the priority, working with our key sectors, and that includes our offshore energy sector. We want full-throated support for the sector in the coming days.”

For several years the Scottish Government has promised to publish a full energy strategy - however, so far this has not been completed.

Mr Swinney is planning to set out his plans for the first 100 days in government soon, and Mr Whitehouse said this must include details on when an energy strategy will be published.

Since Mr Swinney became First Minister two years ago there have been several demands for him to make his government’s position on oil and gas clear.

He has previously said there can be continued drilling in the North Sea if applications meet climate compatibility tests, and uncertainty on whether the Jackdaw and Rosebank oilfields should be developed. And, under Mr Swinney’s leadership, the SNP has dropped its hardline opposition to the proposed Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields.

Mr Whitehouse said: “One thing we are calling for, we’ve had an energy strategy that has been on hold now for a number of years.

“It is vitally important that now the Scottish Government comes forward within the next 100 days and says ‘here is our energy strategy’.

“Scotland is going to focus on the build-out of renewable energy, but we want to see it in a place where it’s making the most of the value of our own oil and gas resources.

“We want that energy strategy and to see the Scottish Government’s voice advocating for a fair tax on oil and gas producers, advocating for the removal of transmission charges which are handicapping developers here in Scotland, and advocating hard for carbon storage to get up and running.”

He added: “This is not just for the First Minister and the government, but the entire parliament.

David Whitehouse, chief executive of OEUK | Supplied

“It is of national imperative, it should not be a polarising debate. It should be something that people rally around.”

Following the election of the new MSPs to Holyrood, there are now going to be two by-elections in the north-east for Westminster - one in Aberdeen South, and one in Arbroath and Broughty Ferry.

Despite pollsters giving early door predictions that both seats will remain SNP, the Scottish Conservatives are already making early moves for a hard campaign in the Aberdeen South seat.

UK Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said she wants to make this by-election all about oil and gas.

Mr Whitehouse said this is a good strategy, as it will help highlight the importance of the industry to the whole of Scotland.

He said: “It is a vital topic not just for Aberdeen South, but the whole of Scotland.

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“This is more about the economic future of Scotland and do we want Scotland to be a place where we are proud of our industrial heritage?

“We will always make the call that the answer should be yes, we need to be making the most of it.”

He added: “The Aberdeen South by-election is a huge opportunity for the sector to have the debate on where we can be more powerful.”

On the campaign trail in Aberdeen on Friday, Mrs Badenoch said the city is “dying” because of the SNP’s lack of support for the industry and accused the party of speaking with “both sides of its mouth” on the fossil fuel sector.

She said the Aberdeen South by-election would be a referendum on oil and gas. She said her party should not have introduced the windfall tax on oil and gas firms, but added that Labour had raised the levy and made it permanent.

Asked about the SNP’s calls for it to be scrapped, she said: “The SNP speak with both sides of their mouth.

“They are not supporting the oil and gas industry.”

She said the party did not “care” about the sector, adding: “That’s one of the reasons why oil and gas is dying, it is one of the reasons why Aberdeen is dying.

“We are losing funding, we are losing tax revenue, young people are not getting jobs – where is the SNP when all this is happening?

“All they do is sit in Holyrood and complain about everything. They do not deliver.”

Mrs Badenoch encouraged voters to back Douglas Lumsden, who announced his candidacy for Westminster just days after being elected to the Scottish Parliament, saying he would be “one less nationalist MP”.

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“We want this to be a referendum on oil and gas,” she said.

She said that while “Reform talk a good game” they “don’t actually do anything”.

She said: “This is the fourth time I’ve made a trip to Aberdeen and that is because I care about oil and gas, I care about this industry, I care about this city.

“I get on the plane, and people ask me to save Aberdeen; they tell me that Aberdeen is dying, that Aberdeen is a shell of what it used to be.

“We need someone who cares about Aberdeen”.

SNP candidate Richard Thomson said Ms Badenoch’s comments were the “height of hypocrisy” which “no one in Aberdeen should be taken in by at all”.

“In government, the Tories gave us a merry-go-round of Energy Ministers who only had one thing in common, and that was to continue siphoning off billions from Scotland’s oil and gas sector.

“In contrast, the SNP has created a new role within our newly formed government with the energy minister reporting directly to the First Minister.

“No one should forget that it was the last Tory Government in which Kemi Badenoch was a minister which introduced the disastrous Energy Profits Levy, and created the cliff-edge for the North Sea which Labour now want to push us off.”

Mr Thomson said it was a “disgrace” that Scotland had some of the highest energy bills in Europe while the industry loses about 1,000 jobs each month.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: “New government ministers have only just been appointed and will now begin work to deliver on their manifesto commitments.”