Exclusive:North Sea workers are being 'misled' by debate over Jackdaw and Rosebank, says Nicola Sturgeon
The former first minister said “we are in danger of perpetrating a con on people working in the North Sea” by suggesting that approving the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields would protect jobs.
North Sea workers are being “misled” and “let down” by the debate over Rosebank and Jackdaw, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
The former first minister said “we are in danger of perpetrating a con on people working in the North Sea” by suggesting that approving the oil and gas fields would protect jobs.
She added that workers will be “let down in the way miners were let down” if the UK does not “get real about building for life after the North Sea”.
Ms Sturgeon was speaking during a debate with former Tory minister Michael Gove in Westminster, which was hosted by trade body Offshore Energies UK (OEUK).
She told the audience in Portcullis House, which is on the Parliamentary Estate: “If we continue to tell ourselves that just given the go-ahead to a few more oil and gas fields that will influence these things at the margins, and we can debate what margin means and all the rest of it, then we are letting down North Sea workers.
“These are not easy problems to tackle, but unless we get real about building for life after the North Sea now, we're letting these workers down, and we'll let them down in the way miners were let down in deindustrialisation, and I think that will be an absolute tragedy and an absolute scandal if we do that.
“And actually, my position is partly, in big part, informed by a deep sense of not wanting to let these workers down.
“Because I think the people we are in danger of misleading the most, is by suggesting that if we just give the go ahead a few more oil and gas fields, we are somehow protecting their jobs well into the future.
“That is not true, and I think we really have to face up to that.”
Ms Sturgeon added that “there's this sense that we're we can just continue North Sea production forever” and that this ”reduces the impetus to actually seriously do the work now to prepare for life beyond the North Sea.”
She told the audience: “If there's a decision next week or next month to give the go-ahead to Rosebank and Jackdaw... I think we've created a climate of political debate in this country that everybody's suddenly going to think, ‘Oh, that's our security supply issue solved. Oh, we're going to have lower prices, or that's why you know everybody in the North Sea's job is going to be secure.’
“I think we're creating a really false debate in this country. And I actually think we are in danger of perpetrating a con on people working in the North Sea.
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“You know, Jackdaw would reduce our imports of gas, by maybe about four per cent for a period of a few years. That's not solving anybody's problem.
“But the debate we've created right now means that I think the political attention will stray again because there's this sense that we're we can just continue North Sea production forever.
“And that reduces the impetus to actually seriously do the work now to prepare for life beyond the North Sea.
“Because life beyond the North Sea, whether we like it or not, whether we believe in the climate emergency or not, is coming, and it is coming fast.
“It is coming fast even if Rosebank and Jackdaw get the go-ahead.
“And I think the debate in this country is way out of kilter, and I think we are in danger of of kind of misleading the public about the significance of these decisions.”
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