GMB: Rushed rundown of North Sea risks industrial calamity

The rushed rundown of oil and gas production risks a jobs calamity and should be paused, according to one of the biggest energy unions.

GMB Scotland, with members across oil, gas, nuclear and renewables, has called for North Sea production and supply chains to be protected while the UK builds a secure mix of energy sources.

Tom Carr-Pollock, a GMB delegate, told the STUC Congress the so-called “just transition” has failed to deliver new jobs in renewables for thousands of oil and gas workers forced out of the sector.

He said: “We have wasted years listening to the empty promises of politicians while our oil and gas industries have been driven to the brink.

“The rushed and unplanned rundown of North Sea production has already cost thousands of jobs, offshore and on, and the ongoing failure to protect those jobs while creating new opportunities is abject.

“We hear the rhetoric of a just transition but see the reality with every contract sent abroad and every skilled job needlessly lost.”

Speaking the day after energy secretary Ed Miliband “doubled down” on his green energy plans while delaying any decision to greenlight two new fields in the North Sea, Carr-Pollock said the oil and gas sector was being needlessly driven to a cliff edge.

He accused the Scottish Government of mixed messages over the sector and called for new clarity and greater urgency to build UK energy security on a mix including oil, gas, nuclear and renewables.

Carr-Pollock, speaking on the last day of the STUC Congress in Dundee’s Caird Hall, said: “We have government press releases where plans should be and are still waiting to see a Scottish industrial strategy fit for publication never mind purpose.

“We have heard from the full quota of committees, taskforces and consultants but seen little vision and no effective action at all.

“We need it urgently because the world is a volatile place and more uncertain today than it was even a few weeks ago.

“The need for energy security and affordable bills has never been greater. Building that security on a mix of energy sources is the only credible response for our country.

“This is not a Zero Sum game. It is not either/or. The UK can - and must - continue producing oil and gas while urgently building renewables capacity and infrastructure. 

"We must create new jobs in green energy and technologies while continuing to stabilise the oil and gas sector and protect highly-skilled, well-paid jobs the length and breadth of Scotland

“We will need oil and, especially, gas for decades to come so why continue to allow our rigs and refineries to power down when UK ministers can slow the decline of production offshore, green light new exploration, and, at the same time, increase our ability to manufacture renewable infrastructure?”

 “Why impose this hard stop on oil and gas when the need for a softer landing, a far more managed decline, could not be clearer?”

The composite motion, backed by GMB Scotland and supported by the STUC Congress, said North Sea production should be secured while the UK continues to need oil and gas and work on the energy transition continues.

Delegates backed calls for that transition to include an urgent nationwide rollout of a home insulation programme, starting in the most deprived areas where the need for lower bills is most urgent.

The motion also called for any public money supporting new sites at Grangemouth and Mossmorran to depend on union recognition for workers.

Carr-Pollock said: “We need a measured, effective and, above all, realistic energy strategy.

“To continuing to rush towards Net Zero without a plan and whatever the cost is folly.

“The cost in terms of jobs and the communities relying on them has already been devastating and threatens an industrial catastrophe.”