Oil and gas companies can help secure a bright future for the north-east by making better use of its “world-beating” supply chain, Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said yesterday.
Mr Ewing co-chairs the Oil and Gas Industry Leadership Group (ILG), which is targeting total sales from the domestic supply chain of £30billion by 2020, despite the oil price collapse.
But he said operators were guilty of squandering talent which is right under their noses.
Mr Ewing added: “The supply chain in Aberdeen shire and city is excellent. It’s world-beating. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a huge number of companies that provide products and services that are amongst the best in the world.
“Also, exports have been increasing from 31% (of total sales) in 2002 to 50% and over of late, so we are already exporting.
“But we believe we can do more and, therefore, to focus on the supply chain and the operators using the supply chain to best effect – something that perhaps is not happening at the moment. That’s the key to even greater success.”
Mr Ewing, who was speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony for Sonomatic’s £4milllion new testing facility in Aberdeen, said: “Oil and gas is a cyclical industry.
“They’ve been there before. They’ll come out of the circle and when they do we want the supply chain to be ready to continue to be world-beating, but to achieve even more around the world in all of the places where oil and gas are extracted.”
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