Meeting of the Parliament 20 January 2016
I am sorry—I have little time left.
Fifthly, we need to ensure that we defer cessation of production and extend late-life assets fields. I believe that there are some practical measures that the UK Government must take. Principally, it must sort out the lack of clarity on liability for decommissioning costs. The major point that several companies and operators raised with me in my most recent visit to Aberdeen a couple of weeks ago was that that lack of clarity is stalling and preventing deals that would bring new investment to the North Sea.
We must have measures from the UK Government that address and improve the tax deal for the industry; we need more support for exploration; we need the UK Government to look again at tax rates; we need to look at extending the investment allowance to enable late-life fields to continue their work; and we need to continue our good work on decommissioning. We in the Scottish Government, through our economic development agencies, have worked closely with many players, and we have done a great amount of work on decomissioning—I cite as one example the work that is taking place in Lerwick with the partnership between the Lerwick Port Authority and Peterson, which is a major company in the field.
It is in all our interests to have a thriving and successful oil and gas industry that navigates these most severe challenges, just as it is to have a thriving and successful renewables sector. As the energy minister over the past five years, I know that we have made considerable efforts to achieve both objectives; we will certainly continue to do so.
I move amendment S4M-15356.2, to leave out from first “considers” to end and insert:
“recognises the challenges faced by the oil and gas industry; notes that the sector is still a major employer supporting a substantial number of jobs across Scotland; understands that Scotland needs a diverse and balanced energy portfolio to provide secure and affordable heat and electricity for decades to come; notes that Scotland has ambitious renewables and climate change targets and is making good progress toward them; further notes that Scotland’s policies on electricity generation, renewable heat and energy efficiency are progressively reducing use of fossil fuels and will help Scotland in its ambitions to decarbonise electricity generation; believes that a successful oil and gas sector will assist with diversification of Scotland’s energy supplies and that the skills and expertise employed in Scotland’s oil and gas industry will be crucial in the future success of the sector, mobilising low-carbon technologies and maximising the economic benefits from decommissioning, and believes that it is vital that Scotland continues to ensure good stewardship of all of this country’s huge energy resources, with management of offshore resources being complementary with decarbonising the Scottish energy system over the long term.”
15:06Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.