The First Minister has called on the UK Government to “get its act together“ on measures to help the oil and gas industry amid falling prices.
Nicola Sturgeon said the Chancellor must introduce a “stable and competitive fiscal regime” to protect thousands of jobs in the sector.
Oil prices have more than halved over the past six months, with global marker Brent Crude dipping from $115 (£76) a barrel to less than $50 (£33) yesterday.
Ms Sturgeon was speaking during First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood, ahead of a statement to Parliament on the issue by Energy Minister Fergus Ewing later today.
Chancellor George Osborne announced a series of measures to boost the sector around his Autumn Statement last month.
Conservative leader Ruth Davidson welcomed his two percentage point reduction in the supplementary tax on oil companies’ profits, which came into force on January 1, and told Ms Sturgeon she had written to the Chancellor urging him to bring in a new investment allowance for the industry within months.
Ms Davidson said: “Given that a fall in the oil price would have left an independent Scotland with an £18.6 billion black hole over the next three years, does the First Minister not agree that this was a bullet dodged and that the best approach for both the industry and the country is for us all to work together on a UK-wide basis?”
She said former first minister Alex Salmond wanted to use the general election, in which he plans to stand as an SNP candidate, to sever all ties apart from foreign affairs and defence.
“That means that the £18.6 billion black hole currently borne on UK-wide shoulders would fall solely on Scotland, meaning cuts to every school, every hospital and every service that we rely upon in this land,” Ms Davidson said.
“Further to that, this full fiscal autonomy plan would tear our tax system apart and it would destabilise the UK-wide regulatory regime that the oil industry relies upon.
“It would be a double-whammy for an industry that is already struggling.”
Ms Sturgeon said: “It is quite admirable in some respects that Ruth Davidson, a supporter of a Government that has been one of successive UK governments that have squandered our oil resources, that has failed to invest in an oil fund, can stand up here and talk about oil and gas without the hint of a brass neck or a blushing face.”
She added: “I will do everything on the part of the Scottish Government to support the industry, the Scottish Government Cabinet will meet in Aberdeen next month, but the UK Government has to get its act together, stop talking about supporting the industry and actually start to do it.”
Labour’s Jackie Baillie said a briefing in the Parliament’s information centre estimated that 15,750 jobs were under threat in the sector – representing one in 12 – and asked what the Scottish Government is doing to support workers.
Ms Sturgeon replied: “We will do all we can to support workers of the oil and gas industry.
“We have repeatedly called on the UK Government to listen to the recommendations of the independent expert commission, to listen to the industry and bring in the stable and competitive fiscal regime that the industry needs, and to bring it in now. That’s what will protect jobs in the sector.”
Tory MSP Murdo Fraser asked whether the Government had assessed the overall impact on the economy.
“Whilst the decline in the oil price is undoubtedly bad news for the energy sector and the north east economy, we should not lose sight of the fact that it is undoubtedly good news for other sectors of the economy and good news for household budgets,” he said.
Ms Sturgeon said: “We need to make sure not only are we supporting the industry with the difficulties the low oil price will present for it, but also making sure consumers do get the benefit of that.”
Mr Ewing is writing to energy companies urging them to pass on savings, while she will make the same point to ScottishPower bosses at a meeting today, the First Minister added.
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