The First Minister spoke to Energy Voice on her first to Aberdeen since becoming leader of the SNP party.
To help the industry, the Scottish Government is setting up an energy jobs taskforce.
Nicola Sturgeon said that the “recent drop in the price of a barrel of crude oil” as well as the UK Government’s “mismanagement” of the tax regime for oil and gas could “pose a threat to a number of jobs”.
Her visit to the offices of Sea Energy was made as Premier Oil revealed it would be making job cuts, while oil major BP is set to announce job cuts tomorrow.
Ms Sturgeon said the recent falling price of oil posed a risk to jobs in the North Sea.
The new taskforce, which will be chaired by Scottish Enterprise chief executive Lena Wilson, will report to the Scottish Energy Advisory Board and will focus on supporting jobs across the sector.
A guarantee for Modern Apprentices in Scotland’s oil and gas sector was also announced to ensure that any faced with redundancy will be offered alternative employment or continued job training pending alternative employment.
Earlier this week,energy analysts Wood Mackenzie warned that if the price slipped below the $40 mark operators could consider closing down wells.
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