The “Just Transition” myth: North Sea workers are being abandoned

I HAVE SPENT much of my working life in the North Sea oil and gas industry, and although I am no longer involved in the day-to-day running of the company where I served as managing director, I still care deeply about its future and about the people who continue to work there.

That is why it is so difficult to watch what is happening to our industry. The Labour Government at Westminster is banning new North Sea oil and gas licences while continuing to support the importation of oil and gas from overseas, including lifting embargoes on imports linked to Russia. Around seventy per cent of the gas we use every day comes from Norway, much of it extracted from the same North Sea basin that we are effectively being forced to close down here at home. To me, that makes no economic or strategic sense and leaves the UK with increasingly fragile energy security.

What concerns me most is the human impact of these decisions. The company I still care deeply about – a business with which I had a forty-year-hands-on connection in the sector – has now been forced to announce redundancies. Knowing the people involved as I do, I have absolutely no doubt that these decisions were taken only as a last resort. The directors and management team will have explored every possible alternative first, from natural staff turnover to reducing costs wherever they could. But the reality is that the North Sea is now in turmoil, investment is declining, and the work simply isn’t there anymore.

The gap between declining traditional energy employment and the promised green economy remains vast and appears to be growing wider

The consequences for local communities are enormous. These are not just figures on a balance sheet; they are skilled workers with families, mortgages, and bills to pay. Apprenticeship opportunities are also under threat, jeopardising the future generation of workers who would once have looked to the industry for stable and rewarding careers.

I also remain deeply sceptical about repeated political assurances that renewable energy jobs will quickly replace those being lost in oil and gas. We constantly hear promises of a “just transition,” yet many people working in the sector struggle to see where these jobs actually are. The gap between declining traditional energy employment and the promised green economy remains vast and appears to be growing wider.

These events also take me back to the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. At that time, my late father, who was chairman of the company, and I spoke publicly about the risks political decisions could pose to the future of the industry and to employment. We faced criticism for doing so, but our concerns were always centred on protecting livelihoods and highlighting the dangers of undermining confidence and investment in the North Sea.

Looking at where the industry stands today, I believe many of those warnings have unfortunately become reality. For me, this debate has never simply been about politics. It is about protecting an industry that has sustained communities for generations and standing up for the workers and families whose futures are now increasingly uncertain.

Our Tory, SNP and Labour governments should hang their heads in shame.