I have raised a motion in the Scottish Parliament calling for strategic state support for the oil and gas industry. The industry has been quick to make workers bear the brunt of recent economic downturns, and this is not in the best interest of anyone apart from companies making profit from cutting terms and conditions.
Unite gave evidence to the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster on the future of the oil and gas industry. In its submission to the inquiry Unite has called for the following:
- For the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) in cooperation with the UK and Scottish governments to initiative strategic public stakes in the offshore sector including infrastructure investment (e.g. pipelines) through discussions with government, industry and trade unions to facilitate co-investment;
- The UK and Scottish governments to use borrowing powers and national investment banks to enact the strategic public stakes to support the sector in dialogue with the OGA;
- The full devolution of employment law, full control over skills and apprenticeships.
- For the UK and Scottish governments in consultation with local authorities, industry and trade unions to initiate a comprehensive national decommissioning strategy;
- Further research to assess employment prospects, the skills gaps and shortages in the UKCS in the context of Brexit and the degree of transferability of skills to the emergent decommissioning sector.
Tommy Campbell, Unite Regional Officer and Chair of the Offshore Co-Ordinating Group, said:
“The oil and gas sector continues to be a major employer and contributor to the UK economy – and it will be so for generations to come. It is a sector of national interest and security; it cannot be left to the vagaries of the market. We have seen the devastating effects of this approach over the last few years and this can’t be allowed to happen again.”
“The UK and Scottish governments must step in now to strategically support the sector to ensure we secure maximum economic recovery of the potential $20 billion barrels in the North Sea, and to plan for the gradual phasing out of wells through a national decommissioning strategy. Unite remains deeply concerned that across the UK there is no coherent plan to address the present and future challenges for the Oil and Gas sector.”
Motion Number: S5M-12769
Lodged By: Alex Rowley
Date Lodged: 13/06/2018
Title: Strategic State Support for the Oil and Gas Industry
Motion Text:
That the Parliament welcomes the call from Unite the Union for strategic state support in the oil and gas industry; believes that it is not in the interests of workers of offshore oil and gas companies to use the recent downturn in the industry to impose what it considers regressive working practices across the North Sea; condemns the industry for, it believes, imposing cuts to pay and holiday entitlement while increasing shift rotas following a sharp drop in the price of oil; recognises that the price of a barrel of oil fell from between $110 and $120 during the period 2011 to 2014 to around $25 a barrel in early 2016; understands that more than 160,000 direct and indirect offshore jobs were lost between 2014 (463,900 jobs) and 2017 (302,200 jobs) as a result of the downturn; further understands that Oil and Gas UK estimates that the sector saw revenues fall by more than £10 billion from 2014 to 2016; believes that the price of oil recently reached $80 a barrel for the first time in four years and that it is projected by global analysts that over the coming months the price could reach $100 a barrel; believes that strategic support from the UK and Scottish governments could ensure maximum economic recovery while at the same time ensuring that the workforce does not pay the brunt of economic downturns through a dismantling of working benefits and conditions, and welcomes the union’s repeated calls for a national decommissioning strategy with the understanding that activity in Scotland over the next 10 years could be valued at between £8.3 billion and £11.3 billion, which it considers would support peak employment of between 16,925 and 22,775 jobs.
You can see who has supported the motion by clicking here.
