SNP accused of burying heads in the sand over North Sea 'emergency'

It came as a new report warned the workforce could shrink by 400 jobs – the same number lost as a result of the closure of the Grangemouth refinery – every two weeks for the next five years unless urgent action is taken.

Research by Robert Gordon University (RGU) found the UK risks losing tens of thousands of offshore energy jobs by 2030.

Last month, the Just Transition Commission said urgent action is needed to ensure the switch from fossil fuels to renewables happens fairly. It said Scotland is currently on course for an “unjust transition”.

Speaking in Holyrood, Alasdair Allan, the acting minister for climate action, said the Scottish Government accepted the commission’s recommendations.

However, he said most of the key policy levers for the North Sea sector are reserved to the UK Government.

He called on UK ministers to end the windfall tax on oil and gas companies as soon as possible, and said it was “essential” to get clarity on the Acorn carbon capture project in Aberdeenshire.

Conservative MSP Douglas Lumsden said: “It’s clear that the minister has his head in the sand as the north-east is facing an emergency right now. The Just Transition Commission report needs to be a wake-up call for this devolved government.”

He highlighted the RGU report, adding: “400 jobs to go a fortnight over the next five years. That is like a Grangemouth closing every two weeks, and the SNP are doing nothing to stop this.”

The Tory energy spokesman accused the SNP of “demonising” the industry. Mr Allan rejected this, and said the north-east faced “real challenges” due to the maturing of the North Sea basin and the changes that will come “regardless of government policy”.

The RGU report said the oil and gas workforce is forecast to fall from 115,000 in 2024 to between 57,000 and 71,000 by the early 2030s.

In the lower case scenario, the North Sea workforce would shrink by the equivalent of approximately 400 jobs every two weeks for the next five years.

The Striking The Balance report noted the production of oil is now down by “almost 75 per cent from its peak” in 1999-2000, when it produced the equivalent of 4.5 million barrels of oil per day.

This has now dropped to 1.09 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, with the report noting that without new licences being granted “the oil and gas industry is forecast to decline by around 95 per cent by 2050 from 2024 levels”.

Professor Paul de Leeuw, director of the energy transition institute at RGU, warned the “window of opportunity for delivering a just transition is closing”.

He said: “With investment at risk and renewables projects facing delays, the findings underline the present-day situation for the UK offshore energy industry and its stakeholders.

“The big prize of a significant jobs gain is still within our collective reach. Inaction or simply slow progress will mean that UK offshore energy job numbers overall could drop by almost 20 per cent to 125,000 by 2030, making the path towards net zero even harder to negotiate.

“The analysis shows that there is a workforce ‘goldilocks zone’ between 2025 and 2030 during which the UK supply chain capacity and capability can be sustained, developed and invested in, so that the transferability of the offshore energy workforce is optimised.

“However, key to the effective delivery of the goldilocks zone is rapid investment in UK capabilities to deliver a fast-growing programme of green capital projects, which in turn will help to realise ambitious goals for domestic execution of these projects.”

He added: “The UK possesses all the attributes and resources to realise the ambitions set out in government strategies and forward-looking industry programmes.

“The report shows that with the right interventions at the right time, the UK can achieve its strategic energy goals and reach its net zero objectives, all while protecting and significantly enhancing workforce numbers in the offshore energy sector.

“Countries such as Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands are already successfully balancing traditional energy production with rapid expansion of renewables, a model the UK could and should emulate.

“The review recognises the constraints to accelerate the deployment of offshore wind, CCS [carbon capture and storage], hydrogen and other renewable energies over the remainder of this decade.

“However, the analysis highlights that Governments can rapidly put in place policies to better manage the decline in the oil and gas sector, so that offshore energy jobs and the UK’s world-class supply chain can be sustained and retained.”

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said the just transition was “being put in jeopardy” by UK ministers.

“The independent expert advice is clear, we will see a Grangemouth scale of job losses each and every fortnight if the UK Government does not shift from its misguided position and protect the energy industry of today so that the workforce can use their skills and expertise to develop the net zero industries of tomorrow,” he said.

“The opportunities of net zero are enormous but they will not be realised if the Labour Government continues with its current fiscal regime that deters stability, confidence and investment in existing industries and we therefore lose our best people, and world-class supply chain, to nations elsewhere.

“Whether it is the impact of the energy profits levy or the failure to fund the Acorn [carbon capture] project, we run the real risk of being in a ‘worst of all worlds’ type scenario and that would be unforgivable.”