New figures show support services for the oil and gas industry are leading Scotland’s marine economy.
Data from the Scottish Government shows the sector brought £2.2billion in gross value added, making up 42% of the national total in 2017, the latest year with available information.
The stats cover a range of locations and industries such as aquaculture, fishing and passenger transport.
They do not include oil and gas extraction.
Despite oil and gas services bringing the biggest benefit, marine tourism employs the most people of any of the sectors with 28,000.
The marine economy generated £5.2bn in 2017, up 18% on the previous year.
Oil and gas services employs 17,800 people according to the data, accounting for 1.6% of the overall GVA for the Scottish economy.
However the sector’s GVA has declined by 37% since 2008 which was at £3.4bn.
Geographically, Aberdeen had the largest contribution to the marine economy, accounting for 39%, bringing more than £2bn GVA, followed by Aberdeenshire at £951m.
The Scottish Government said the data highlights the strong concentration of the marine economy in the north-east, linked to the location of oil and gas services, commercial fishing and fish processing industries.
The stats relate only to direct economic contributions of the sector’s to Scotland’s economy and not to the indirect contributions that arise from their wider supply chains.
Work is underway to include the contribution of other sectors such as offshore renewable energy to future publications.
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