How SNP and Labour are blowing a historic opportunity to save North Sea energy industry

Business leader warns the UK is ‘training a world-class workforce and building the technology to lead the energy transition – but that talent and investment is increasingly being deployed overseas’

Another day, another warning to politicians about their failure to ensure that Scotland’s declining oil and gas industry is replaced by a world-leading renewable energy sector.

This latest wake-up call comes from a survey of more than 100 companies operating on the UK Continental Shelf. Nearly half reported staff were already leaving the UK to work elsewhere, in part because of low confidence in the domestic industry and a lack of viable projects.

Firms told the 41st Energy Transition Survey, published by Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce, that they expected the majority of their work would be overseas by 2030 and Russell Borthwick, the chamber’s chief executive, spelt out what this would mean in no uncertain terms.

“We are training a world-class workforce and building the technology to lead the energy transition – but that talent and investment is increasingly being deployed overseas,” he said. “You cannot deliver net zero by exporting your industrial base. If we continue to erode competitiveness through incoherent energy policy and excessive taxation, we risk offshoring the entire supply chain that is essential to the UK’s future energy system.”

READ MORE: North Sea oil and gas workers braced for 'unjust transition' as SNP ministers have 'no plan'

Expertise in marine engineering built up in the North Sea oil and gas industry could help create a world-leading marine renewables industry (Picture: Andy Buchanan) | AFP via Getty Images

‘Uncertainty and inconsistency’

One key finding was that 90 per cent of firms believed the absence of a Scottish Government energy strategy was damaging investor confidence. And Mark Stewart, of accountancy and business advice firm Johnston Carmichael, said the survey reinforced messages from their clients “that uncertainty and inconsistency in UK energy policy are now bigger threats to investment than commodity prices or global market trends”.

Clearly governments cannot do everything. They need cooperation from the private sector if a managed transition – let alone a ‘just’ one – from fossil fuels to renewable is to be achieved. However, having an energy strategy in the first place and ensuring that policies are clear and consistent should be the very least we can expect from ministers.

Like efforts to decarbonise the economy, creating a major new industrial sector is not a simple task, but politicians cannot keep shying away from making decisions. Otherwise the exodus of skilled staff will continue and, within just a few years, a historic opportunity to future-proof our economy may slip through our hands.