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Scottish Sun
14-05-2025
- Business
- Scottish Sun
We need our North Sea oil and gas to power the economy
'What is the point of these companies staying here if they're being taxed out of existence?' PLEA TO PM We need our North Sea oil and gas to power the economy THE future of the North Sea Oil industry hangs in the balance as the UK rushes toward Net Zero. However experts insist that even with renewable energy sources, we will still need oil and gas for decades to come. 4 North Sea Oil platforms. 4 Mike Tholen, policy director of Offshore Energies UK. 4 Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour Prime Minister. North Sea Oil provides £20 billion a year in economic value to the UK but the Westminster Government has closed its consultation on the industry's future while another on the energy windfall tax closes later this month. Mike Tholen, policy director of Offshore Energies UK, pleads the case to help the our home grown oil industry before more jobs are lost forever. THE Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged his government would support jobs and families. Scotland's offshore energy family is in urgent need of that support right now. Last week alone hundreds of people were told they had lost their jobs. Harbour Energy in Aberdeen was forced to cut 250 onshore roles – a quarter of its workforce. Belmar Engineering, with 50 years of history supporting the UK global leading subsea industry, went into administration with the loss of more skilled jobs. There was further bad news when one of the world's biggest wind farm companies Orsted halted work on the Hornsea 4 wind farm in the sea off Humberside. They say they cannot make the sums add up. Warning lights are flashing but there is another path to our energy future. One that puts homegrown production at the heart of UK industry, supporting domestic oil and gas production alongside the build out of renewables. We need new oil and gas licences to show firms and the world the North Sea is open for business. That will also unlock more cash for companies to plough into renewable energy projects. We need to end the Energy Profits Levy - known as the windfall tax - which is driving away oil and gas producers that can't pay 78p in the pound in tax in a fiercely competitive world What is the point of these companies staying here if they're being taxed out of existence? Much better for them to move overseas. But that means the UK becomes even more dependent on imported energy which comes with a much higher carbon footprint. As the Prime Minister has said, the UK will continue to use oil and gas for decades to come. Our choice is whether we produce that oil and gas here or increasingly rely on imports. In an unpredictable world that is not the place to be. The North Sea remains a strategic national asset that has powered the UK economy and homes through oil and gas for half a century. Last year the UK imported almost 40 per cent of its total energy even though we still have significant untapped oil and gas reserves in the North Sea. Apart from these reserves we also have the second largest offshore wind capacity in the world and a pipeline of new opportunities. We have the geology to store more carbon dioxide under the North Sea than the country has produced since the industrial revolution. Building on these strengths, the UK is uniquely placed to support our energy future. But this is not the experience of many people working in our offshore energy sector and across industrial Britain. In recent weeks, my team and I have travelled across the country and spoken to hundreds of people in public meetings in Falkirk, Newcastle, and Humberside, as well as here in Aberdeen. These are communities dependent on the offshore energy industry. The message was clear - seeing UK industry shutting down to rely simply on imports is not the way forward. Yes, people want to see action on climate change, but they want that done in a way that supports jobs and value in our economy. And in a way that drives energy prices down. With practical policy, domestic energy production could support half of UK demand and add another £165billion of value to the UK economy, supporting jobs, and the very supply chain companies needed to build offshore wind, carbon storage, and hydrogen projects. This is not a black and white debate on one form of energy versus another. We reject the argument that it's wind electricity or oil and gas. The people of our industry and the public deserve better than that. We need all the homegrown energy we can get to keep the lights on, protect us from ever greater reliance on expensive imports and preserve the 200,000 plus jobs that depend on our sector. Our industry provides £20 billion a year in economic value to the UK. There are big decisions to be made by politicians. The UK Government just closed its consultation on building the North Sea's energy future. In a fortnight, another key consultation on the future of the Energy Profits Levy will close too. The UK's new industrial strategy is due for publication later this Spring. It is expected to focus on how better to manage energy production and use so industry has a fighting chance. We are on the brink of critical decisions which will impact hundreds of thousands of lives. For the future of our North Sea and for people and families across the UK, we must get this right. 4 North Sea Oil is worth £20 billion a year to the UK economy.
Western Telegraph
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Western Telegraph
Immigration no ‘quick-fix' for aging population, says Bowie
Shadow Scottish secretary Andrew Bowie described high immigration north of the border as a 'pyramid scheme response' to an aging population, as working-age migrants become old themselves 'and perpetuate the same crisis again and again'. National Records of Scotland figures forecast that the country's population aged 75 or older will grow by 341,300 between mid-2022 and mid-2047, but the number of children aged 15 or younger is expected to fall by 79,900. More Stories The SNP's Pete Wishart claimed that the Westminster Government had used 'social engineering' to lower Scotland's birth rate by keeping the two-child cap on benefits in place. The cap means that families can claim benefits such as Universal Credit for up to two children, and there is usually no uplift for additional children. MPs ran out of time to vote on the Devolution (Immigration) (Scotland) Bill, which Stephen Gethins proposed to remove 'immigration, including asylum' from the list of reserved matters which lie under Westminster's control. Mr Bowie told the Commons: 'Proposed immigration as a quick-fix for declining population I'm afraid is wrong-headed and indeed short-sighted. High immigration to solve low birth rates and an aging population is a pyramid scheme response. 'Working-age immigrants initially slow the growth of the age dependency ratio, however, will in turn age and perpetuate the same crisis again and again, and whilst nations across the developed world are faced with the myriad of issues an aging population presents, the Scottish National Party should be more focused on support for working families, improving the economic outlook and prosperity, rather than proposing unfettered immigration.' The Conservative shadow minister said the SNP should strive for Scotland to become the 'lowest tax' part of the UK 'and see what that has when it comes to attracting people north of the border'. Mr Bowie said he was 'sure there is' an SNP elected politician who had proposed 'unfettered immigration', when Dave Doogan, the party's MP for Angus and Perthshire Glens, challenged him to 'identify' one. Mr Wishart had earlier said: 'The simple fact is that Scotland needs more working age people to refresh our population and if we do not get that we are going to be in serious, serious trouble. Scottish Secretary Ian Murray arrives in Downing Street, London, for a Cabinet meeting (Stefan Rousseau/PA) 'Now this is happening all around the world. But what this Government is doing with this Brexit is getting in the way and making the issue worse. 'And you know something else that they're doing, they are, with their falling birth rate, they are actually trying to suppress our birth rate by the social engineering use of the benefits system to deny benefits to working class parties who are seeking to have large families. 'It is the very point at where we should be doing everything to encourage more children. They are actively trying to suppress it through social engineering using the benefits system.' He added: 'This Government is making our situation and condition ten times worse by the inept, clumsy, callous and heinous attempt to socially engineer the benefits system to suppress our birth rate, at the very time when we need more children. We need larger families.' The MP for Perth and Kinross-shire praised former prime minister Sir Tony Blair's government, which he said 'opened up Eastern Europe through accession which helped our issues in Scotland'. Mr Gethins, the SNP MP for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry, described his private member's Bill as 'a way of offsetting some of the damage that's been done by a hostile environment, by Brexit'. He said he was 'very open to this being amended', if the Bill is able to progress. Scottish Secretary Ian Murray told the House: 'Migration has to come down. That's the Prime Minister and this Government's view, because it's too high. 'And the reason it has to come down, and this goes right to the heart of some of the big issues in Scotland and the moment, this Scottish Government don't want to talk about it and this SNP Government don't want to talk about – nearly one in six young people in Scotland are neither in education, employment or training. 'We have shipyards in Scotland that build the very best ships in the world employing Filipino and South African welders, and those South African and Filipino welders look from the top of those ships into some of the poorest communities in Scotland and the United Kingdom where there's a huge number of young people not in education, employment or training, and we need to do something about that.' Mr Murray urged a focus on 'workforce planning and skills', and said a consequence of devolving asylum policy to legislators in Edinburgh could be to have 'checks in both directions' with different rules either side of the Scottish border. The debate ended without a vote and was adjourned until July 11.
