Nicola Sturgeon has accepted Aberdeen City Council’s invitation to an emergency oil summit.
The first minister revealed she was ready to take part as she prepared to visit the city today as part of efforts to help the oil industry with plummeting prices.
Accompanied by Scottish Enterprise’s Lena Wilson, Ms Sturgeon will meet representatives of the industry body Oil and Gas UK and trade unions. The purpose is two-fold: to find out what more the
Scottish Government can do to help struggling firms and workers faced with redundancy, but mainly to marshal as much support as possible around the need for changes to the fiscal regime in the North Sea.
The Scottish Government wants the UK Government to put in place an investment allowance for expensive-to-develop fields, an exploration tax credit and a timescale for a phased reversal of the supplementary charge on corporation tax.
Earlier this week, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander revealed that help announced in the Autumn Statement, tax relief for decommissioning, a basin-wide investment allow-ance will be in the March budget. Ms Sturgeon said she was taking what he said at face value.
“We are hearing some of, maybe not all of the right noises from the UK Government, but what we need is more definition and more clarity on the timescale,” she said.
“Yes I welcome what they are saying in so far as it goes, but we are pushing to get those changes implemented in very short order.”
Today’s talks are the latest between the offshore industry and government representatives.
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