Industry leaders will come together in Aberdeen today more than a year after a North Sea oil summit was held to discuss how to protect the North-east economy.
Aberdeen City Council leader Jenny Laing will hold a private two-hour meeting at Town House where representatives from industry and government will assess the impact of the low oil price on the region’s economy.
It comes just a few months after Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire were awarded a £250million City Region Deal by the UK Government.
Sir Ian Wood, Oil & Gas UK chief executive Deidre Michie and Oil and Gas Authority boss Andy Samuel are all expected to provide their perspective on the challenges facing the UK Continental Shelf.
Lena Wilson who chairs the Energy Taskforce, which was set up in the wake of job losses across the sector, is also expected to be in attendance.
The newly-appointed Scottish Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse, who took over from his predecessor Fergus Ewing will also be at the “round-table” event.
Lord Dunlop Is also expected to attend from the UK Government.
It comes amid criticism after politicians were not invited to attend the meeting.
More than 65,000 jobs have been lost from the oil and gas industry in the past 18 months, with a recent report from Oil & Gas UK estimating up to 120,000 positions will have been lost both indirectly and directly from the industry as a result of the price decline by the end of 2016.
Aberdeen MP Callum McCaig said: “The leaders of Aberdeen City Council have heralded their afternoon catch-up as an oil and gas summit, but it is unclear exactly why they are defining it as that.
“As far as I understand each attendee will be given around 10 minutes to speak followed by a half hour discussion between 9 or 10 representatives – to class this as a talking shop would be overselling it.
“If you’re going to get the likes of Sir Ian Wood, government ministers and senior union representatives in the same room you should really have more on the agenda than “updates”.
“The very fact that Aberdeen’s MSPs and MPs are still banned from discussions speaks volumes about the Labour led administration’s unwillingness to engage constructively with the Scottish and Westminster Parliaments.
“From the outside looking in this resembles a publicity stunt, rather than a summit to really accomplish anything on the City Council’s part.”
However, Aberdeen City Councillor Willie Young said the meeting would not simply be a “talking shop” and said those attending would not be doing so if it was not going to be addressing the
challenges facing the industry and surrounding area in full.
He said: “We are expecting three forms of government to work together to once again in support of the industry.
“The likes of Sir Ian Wood would not be in attendance at this event if it was simply a ‘talking shop.”
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