LABOUR deputy leader Kezia Dugdale has called on the Scottish Government to do more to protect oil jobs, after accusing Nicola Sturgeon of being unprepared for a "crisis" facing the industry.
The MSP, leading her party at First Ministers Questions for the first time, focused on a dramatic drop in oil prices to below 60 dollars a barrel and warnings that they could fall further to 40 dollars.
The current figure is almost half of what the Scottish Government predicted in the run-up to the independence referendum, leading to claims that the SNP "believed their own wishful thinking".
Ms Dugdale, who was watched by newly-elected Labour leader Jim Murphy who sat in the public gallery, said "There is a crisis in the oil industry. The same old answers about looking to Westminster for answers just do not stack up. Of course the UK Government should respond, and quickly, but the Scottish Government has to work with unions and the industry to find ways to maintain employment levels right now.
"Surely we cannot have a First Minister so unprepared, so unsighted on such a key industry."
The volatility of oil costs proved a prominent issue in the run-up to the referendum vote, with unionist parties claiming fluctuations in price would leave a smaller Scottish economy exposed, while the Yes campaign said oil was a "bonus" and that an independent Scotland would not be reliant on the resource.
Currently, the oil and gas sector is facing job losses, wage cuts and expert warnings that it is ''close to collapse'' due to the falling crude oil prices.
Ms Dugdale said the First Minister had "at least six" responsibilities to the oil and gas industry, listing onshore business taxes, support for finding markets, supporting infrastructure and diversifying the industry as well as skills and innovation.
Ms Sturgeon said the Government had invested millions in the Oil and Gas Innovation Centre and was in regular contact with industry chiefs. She called for Holyrood parties to work together to call on the UK Government to ease the tax burden on the sector, and support innovation.
She said: "The sector, the industry wants us to unite to call on the UK Government to accelerate action around the new investment allowance, they want us to unite to call on the UK Government to increase support for innovation, and I think we should call on the UK Government to take more action around reducing the supplementary charge.
"I think that those whose jobs are under threat right now look at us and want to see us coming together in that way, not having a party political ding-dong."
Her official spokesman said later that organisations including RBS, Commerce Bank, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs had produced oil price forecasts in line with the Scottish Government's and that "no-one is contemplating" a North Sea pull out.
However, he said there were "no current plans" to produce a document giving an update on the state of the oil and gas industry. Three of the updates, which included price forecasts, were produced in the run-up to the referendum.
The spokesman added: "It's an utterly ludicrous suggestion to say that the Scottish Government was somehow out of kilter with our forecasts in March 2013... to try and imply that impartial civil servants were in some way culpable of something is pretty out of line.
"It's not that long ago - 1999 - that oil was down at 10 dollars a barrel. Prices go up, prices go down... We've been here many times before."
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