Hansard

I apologise that I will have to leave for a brief period for a prior commitment with a constituent, although I will be back for the closing speeches.

I join colleagues in arguing that our oil and gas resources are precious to us. The Scottish Government’s motion records the huge investment in oil and gas, and the massive resources that come from the industry, which generate revenue for public services throughout the UK.

It is important that we extract oil and gas in an environmentally responsible manner and with regard to human safety. I shall comment on both of those issues. It is also important that we use our oil and gas resources wisely and as efficiently as possible, but I suspect that that is a debate for another day, possibly next week when we debate climate change.

The oil and gas industry is hugely carbon intensive, in both the extraction and the use of gas and oil. However, there is a great deal of expertise in the industry, which is now considering how we can turn a high-carbon industry into a lower-carbon industry. As Lewis Macdonald highlighted, we need to ensure that there is sufficient training to enable the next generation to enter the industry. We must also make links with universities, so that the industry gets the best quality of research.

The minister highlighted the new opportunities for development, which are significant. However, new development is ever-more challenging, not just geographically but because of the climate in which companies will operate over the next few years. As the industry moves to deeper and deeper fields, the operating challenges are tougher and the stakes are even higher.

Last year, a report from the UK Parliament’s Energy and Climate Change Committee highlighted the impact that a major oil spillage in the UK could have on taxpayers. That should concern us not just in relation to developments off our own shores—I think that British-based companies need to act to British standards wherever they operate in the world. That is important not only for fair competition in the oil and gas industry here and for workers who go from Scotland with multinational companies to use their skills across the globe, but for environmental standards.

We know that the cost of mistakes and accidents can be huge. As Lewis Macdonald so eloquently commented, Piper Alpha reminds us of the huge human cost of error. More recently, the environmental cost of the Deepwater Horizon leakage in the Gulf of Mexico was enormous. That was a huge wake-up call to the industry throughout the world. The fact that the Gannet Alpha incident in August this year was our most serious oil spillage for 10 years reflects well on our industry, but it is also a reminder that we need to ensure that health and safety and environmental standards remain central.

I was keen to hear what lessons Scottish ministers had learned from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. I was particularly keen to hear about contingency measures. Will the minister talk about those in his concluding remarks? In particular, I am thinking about information that is given by oil companies and responses that can be made by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Marine Scotland once they have the information.

For most people, the environment is out of sight and out of mind, particularly if it is the marine environment and especially if it is hundreds of miles off our shores. However, now that our new marine acts have bedded in across the UK, I am interested to hear from the minister how the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 has delivered us a framework for a more sustainable marine environment. That is a huge opportunity and I hope that the Scottish Government is taking it forward.

For me, the underlying principle must be the precautionary principle, which means that our approach to the marine environment must be underpinned by robust science and information. That situation must be challenging for companies at the levels at which they now operate, and it is challenging in terms of transparency for both regulators and Government.

The oil and gas industry is not just about a sustainable marine environment. New technologies such as fracking, particularly in the shale industry, are now being promoted. I am keen to hear from the minister in his closing remarks what work is being done to evaluate the risks to our environment from fracking; in particular, I am keen to hear what risk assessment has been done on groundwater and water resources and whether SEPA has been tasked to examine how local carbon impacts could be assessed and the issue of hydraulic fracturing.

Fracking was mentioned briefly during themed questions on rural affairs and the environment, but the issue deserves some attention in a wider debate on oil and gas, because we need information on it urgently. Planning officers who have not been trained on the fracking issue or have not dealt with it will have to deal with it in a professional, efficient manner. There is a role for the Scottish Government in ensuring that planning authorities are up to speed on the issue.

Experience in the US has demonstrated that irresponsible use of fracking technology leads to huge environmental costs. In some areas, the water has become so contaminated that people can set it alight as it comes out of domestic taps. We do not want to see that in Scotland. In that regard, there is a major role for a regulator such as SEPA or our local planning authorities, which must ensure that they are up to speed on the issue. The Scottish Government needs to give leadership on that. I am keen to hear what discussions the Scottish Government has had with planning authorities to ensure that they can exercise their duties properly.

I want to comment briefly on health and safety in the oil and gas industry. There are major challenges in that regard at deeper depths. The comments on health and safety in Lewis Macdonald’s amendment are important and need to be part of our discussion. We need to state clearly that we support the highest priority being given in our marine environment not only to environmental standards, but to health and safety. The role of trade unions and their members is important in that regard, alongside that of employers, regulators and the Government.

We need to ensure that, even with our very good track record in the oil industry in Scotland, we have a safety culture that is deeply embedded in every aspect of oil and gas production. That is crucial, because it can take only a minor mistake somewhere for tragedy to ensue. Lewis Macdonald’s comments about Piper Alpha are utterly relevant for the industry now. It is important that the trade union movement plays a vital and positive part in the industry.

I hope that the Labour amendment will be supported and that the environmental aspects of oil and gas are logged. On the carbon capture and storage proposals for Peterhead, we need to take a wider approach to oil and gas, so that proposed development would be crucial in giving us the experience in Scotland of carbon capture and storage, which we could export. It is important to ensure that our carbon-intensive industry can still proceed but that it does so with a smaller carbon footprint. That technology is hugely important, not only for us in Scotland; I hope that we can export it to the rest of the world. Retrofitting existing plants is the way forward.

I hope that the minister will pick up on some of my questions in his closing speech.

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