Salmond pledges oil revenues will be used to help clean up North Sea

First Minister Alex Salmond last night said Scotland would foot some of the bill for cleaning up the North Sea after oil production.

Addressing the Institute of Directors in London yesterday, Mr Salmond told business leaders that an independent Scotland would pay through the revenues it received from its geographical share of the carve up of North Sea oil and gas fields, stating that it was £20 billion out of a total of £40bn.

Asked if Scotland would pay the clean up costs, he said: “That’s against an expected revenue return of £400bn over the same period of time. So it’s about 5 per cent of the government revenue. So if you’re asking will we take the decommissioning costs, we’ll take 5 per cent cost of a 95 per cent benefit, then the answer is yes.”

Last week, Scottish energy secretary Fergus Ewing told a Commons committee last week: “It would seem to us reasonable to suggest that having received all the revenue, the costs of the accrued revenue, which was accrued entirely in the UK, should in principle be the UK’s responsibility.”

Labour accused the Scottish Government of being in disarray over the policy.

Shadow energy minister Tom Greatrex MP said: “What this shows is that the SNP’s energy policy is incoherent, ill-thought out and unravelling week by week. Alex Salmond can pluck all the figures out the air that he likes, but that can’t disguise that he is all over the place on energy.

“Scotland and the rest of the UK mutually benefit from Scotland’s vast energy resources. There are shared resources, risks and rewards. It makes no sense to change that.”

However, a spokesman for the First Minister said that Mr Salmond agreed with Mr Ewing.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The estimated clean-up costs to taxpayers, of around £16 to £20bn over 30 years, should be viewed in the context of future revenues of up to £400bn.

“The First Minister was clearly making the point in a humorous manner during the question and answer session.”

Mr Salmond also used the speech to unveil a new advertising campaign in the City of London to encourage companies to invest in Scotland.

The move was described as part of the Scottish Government’s attempts to rebalance the UK economy and tackle the recession.

And Mr Salmond also made it clear that he envisaged an independent Scotland would have the same income tax rates as the UK.

New tax varying powers are included in the Scotland Bill, which is due to become an Act today.