Oil and Gas
Exploration
2. (Glasgow) (Con)
I apologise for arriving during the session.
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has fully considered
the economic consequences of its presumption against new oil and
gas exploration, both to workers within the industry and to the
wider Scottish economy as a whole. (S6O-01781)
The Minister for Just
Transition, Employment and Fair Work ()
The oil and gas sector and its highly skilled workforce have long
been at the forefront of energy innovation and have an important
role to play in Scotland’s energy transition. However, as we all
know, the North Sea basin is mature, and production will
inevitably decline.
The draft energy strategy and just transition plan draw on
established industry data and independent work commissioned from
consultants that analyses the energy and economic contributions
of the North Sea and the wider oil and gas sector in Scotland,
and includes production forecasts, the expected growth of
Scotland’s low-carbon energy sectors and the impact of the energy
transition on employment and the wider economy. As a responsible
Government, we have set out a pathway to ensure a fair and just
transition—any other approach would serve only to put jobs and
our economy at risk.
The oil and gas communities of the north-east of Scotland will be
devastated at the disregard shown to them by the Scottish
National Party Government. The sector is highly important to our
economy, and even in our just transition away from fossil fuels,
which is estimated to take 25 years or more, it will be a
necessary component of our on-going energy infrastructure. Does
the cabinet secretary accept that halting oil and gas production
would increase our reliance on foreign imports of oil and gas and
prop up questionable regimes, which would only amplify and
relocate the greenhouse emissions that we seek to reduce as well
as damage domestic job creation?
This question is about future exploration, not existing oil and
gas production, as the member suggests. By 2035, production in
the North Sea will be around a third of 1999 levels, and it will
be less than 3 per cent of the 1990 peak by 2050. We have a duty,
which the energy strategy fulfils by looking to the 2030s and
2040s and the need of future generations for energy and jobs, to
look at what we can do to make sure that we meet our
responsibilities as a country and do not focus only on today’s
headlines.
Research from Robert Gordon University and other institutions
estimates that the number of low-carbon jobs will rise from
19,000 in 2019 to 77,000 by 2050, which means that there will be
an increase in energy-related jobs in north-east Scotland and
elsewhere. As someone who represents a constituency with many oil
and gas jobs in it, and who spends a lot of time in north-east
Scotland because of my ministerial responsibilities, I am very
familiar with the views of those in the oil and gas sector and
with the fact that oil and gas majors are investing heavily in,
and are very committed to, the energy transition.
The Scottish Tory party has to make up its mind: if it wants a
transition, what does it want to transition to? We want to
transition to clean energy for Scotland and to tackle climate
change.
The Deputy Presiding
Officer
Answers need to be slightly briefer.
Audrey Nicoll (Aberdeen
South and North Kincardine) (SNP)
During last week’s Prime Minister’s questions, committed to supporting the
north-east energy sector. Does the minister agree that the Prime
Minister should put his money where his mouth is by matching the
Scottish Government’s £500 million just transition fund, and that
he should stop delaying investment into the Acorn carbon capture
and storage project, which has been left completely in the lurch?
Those were very good points. The United Kingdom Government—which
has extracted more than £300 billion from the North Sea—should
match the Scottish Government’s £500 million for the north-east
of Scotland and Moray just transition fund. The previous question
was about the economic assessment of our energy plans, and I
would like to know what the UK Government’s economic assessment
was that led to its refusal to take forward the Acorn
project, which would create up to 20,000 new jobs in Scotland,
many of which would be in north-east Scotland.
