Unity key to Scottish oil’s future, PM claims
David Cameron will take his Cabinet to Scotland tomorrow to highlight the importance to Scotland’s oil industry of staying in the UK.
David Cameron will take his Cabinet to Scotland tomorrow to highlight the importance to Scotland’s oil industry of staying in the UK.
A senior UK Government minister has dismissed proposals to set up an oil fund in an independent Scotland as a “pipe dream”.
First Minister Alex Salmond has claimed that a Westminster withdrawal of the pound from an independent Scotland would inflict a “George tax” on businesses across the rest of the UK at a cost of some £500million.
UK Chancellor George Osborne has warned that a $20 (£12) fall in the price of a barrel of oil in an independent Scotland would cost 11,000 jobs.
The Liberal Democrats’ former Scottish leader has claimed independence would threaten Aberdeen’s position as the oil capital of Europe.
A leading figure in the North Sea energy sector yesterday echoed concerns over Scottish independence voiced by the chief executive of oil and gas giant BP.
Exclusive: The UK’s energy minister has warned that Scottish independence would be “absolutely fatal” for the North Sea oil and gas industry. Watch our video interview here.
Energy Minister Fergus Ewing has claimed Scotland’s oil wealth has been “squandered” for decades and described a decision not to set up an oil fund as a “huge error”.
A leading economist has predicted that a major North Sea oil find in the next eight months could have an impact on the independence campaign.
Proposals to force UK consumers to subsidise renewables in an independent Scotland, and buy back energy to keep the lights on, have been branded “wrong-headed” and “unworkable”.
Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said the two countries could play a key role in Europe’s increasingly integrated energy market, building on established expertise in both the renewables and oil and gas sectors.
Labour MSP Richard Baker says oil and gas will be milked to pay for “uncosted” proposals in the white paper on independence.
The SNP’s plans for green energy under independence have received a boost by five academics.
Having lived and worked in Aberdeen and Shetland, I have been able to see the oil and gas sector develop at close hand, writes Scots Secretary Alistair Carmichael
Ten North Sea oil fields could be at the centre of a custody battle if Scotland votes for independence in next year’s referendum.
Any division of the UK EEZ could therefore depend at least as much on political issues as legal ones, and the potential for the North Sea boundary to be ‘traded off’ as part of a wider negotiation on the division of UK assets and liabilities.
Consumers south of the border will continue to pay towards renewable energy development in Scotland, according to the SNP.
The Scottish Government has promised a “stable and predictable” fiscal regime for the North Sea with no plans to increase taxes on the oil industry.
An overwhelming majority of bosses in the oil and gas industry fear a jump in taxation if Scotland becomes independent, a new report says today.