Having lived and worked in Aberdeen and Shetland, I have been able to see the oil and gas sector develop at close hand. It is an asset that we should rightly be proud of.
It’s also an industry not without its risks and I have always had high regard for our offshore workers who work in the harshest conditions.
This year will be a big year when we will decide if we want to continue with our 300-year-old union that has served us well or if we want to leave that union forever.
Independence will have implications for our thriving oil and gas sector and I firmly believe that the sector has a strong future as part of the UK.
The sector has grown so fast, creating hundreds of companies and thousands of jobs, particularly in the north-east. The UK Government is committed to seeing the sector grow.
Our Oil and Gas Strategy, which we published jointly with industry this year, shows how we will continue to support the development of the industry, jobs and supply chains.
There has been much talk over the last few years about declining production in the North Sea and the economic challenges this will bring.
We are aware the North Sea is a mature basin where production is declining and extraction more difficult, plus we have an ageing infrastructure.
New fields have proven more costly to extract. However, the sector is resilient and can adapt to challenges. I’m optimistic about the future for the sector as part of the UK.
We want to maximise the production of North Sea oil and gas to secure a long-term sustainable future and protect thousands of jobs dependent on it.
This includes providing tax reliefs and long-term certainty on decommissioning, which has and will continue to stimulate billions of pounds worth of investment.
We know that this alone is not enough. As the challenges increase, we must encourage new technology and new partnerships.
That is why we asked Sir Ian Wood to carry out a review looking at what we need to do to maximise production from the North Sea over the coming decades.
Oil and gas production will always fluctuate but there is no doubt the best way to deal with the volatility of revenues is within the larger UK economy where we can pool our resources and share the risks across a bigger population.
Alistair Carmichael is Secretary of State for Scotland and MP for Orkney and Shetland.
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