Letter: Waste of oil
The Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, since 1995, has been investing much of Norway's oil revenues for future generations and it currently stands at $508 billion (327bn) - $117,000 for every fortunate Norwegian.
Over the same period Scotland has produced roughly the same amount of oil as Norway, but not a single penny has been invested and we have no oil fund. It has all vanished into the Treasury as if it were a normal tax revenue stream instead of the precious, unrepeatable, lucky windfall which could have protected our economy for hundreds of years.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdPrudent Norway's four million people are the richest in the world, and will continue to become richer for the foreseeable future. Scotland has the unenviable prospect of being the only country in the world to have discovered massive amounts of oil but to have ended up poorer.
James Duncan
Rattray Grove
Edinburgh
It is surprising that your letter writers (Thomas Murray, Letters, 26 August and others) are seemingly unaware that the Continental Shelf Act 1964 and the Continental Shelf (Jurisdiction) Order 1968 define the UK North Sea maritime area to the north of latitude 55 degrees north as being under the jurisdiction of Scots law, meaning that more than 90 per cent of the UK's oil resources were under Scottish jurisdiction.
In addition, section 126 of the Scotland Act 1998 defines Scottish waters as the internal waters and territorial sea of the United Kingdom as are adjacent to Scotland.
This was subsequently amended by the Scottish Adjacent Waters Boundary Order 1999, which redefined the extent of Scottish waters and Scottish fishery limits and secretly transferred 6,000 square miles of Scottish waters to England without a debate in the House of Commons and for no apparent reason other than it transferred three oil fields to England just prior to devolution.
Calum Stewart
Montague Street
Edinburgh