Keith Brown to meet oil and gas industry bosses in Aberdeen

Economy Secretary Keith Brown is to travel to Aberdeen to meet leading figures from the oil and gas sector in the next few days as the sector continues to struggle in a 'challenging economic environment'.

Economy Secretary Keith Brown: North-east a priority. Picture: Contributed

Mr Brown said helping the north-east, where the sector is based, remains a “priority” for the Scottish Government.

Both he and business, innovation and energy minister Paul Wheelhouse will travel to Aberdeen later this week for the talks.

It comes less than a week after oil giant Shell announced it is axing 475 jobs in north-east Scotland.

Mr Brown insisted the Scottish economy has remained “resilient” despite difficult global conditions as MSPs debated the economy at Holyrood yesterday.

Mr Brown added: “Weak global growth, low oil prices and a high exchange rate have combined to present a challenging economic environment, and in particular for our oil and gas industry and its supply chain. These are global trends affecting countries around the world and, of course, Scotland is not immune to them.

“The impact of the pressures has been felt most acutely in the production sector, particularly in the north-east of Scotland, where the oil and gas sector has had to respond by restructuring and with redundancies.”