SO near and yet so far.

The proximity of the two Cabinets was an intriguing coincidence.

It enabled David Cameron to visit an oil rig and insist that the UK Government really cared about Scotland; that biggest was best and the UK's deep pockets meant it was best-placed to develop the industry.

But it also gave Alex Salmond the opportunity to dismiss the casual jet-set from the south, denouncing them as oil and gas "thieves", and to insist that Scotland would nurture its North Sea bonanza and, pointing to Norway, declare that small was, in fact, beautiful with the prospect of a Norwegian-style oil fund worth £30 billion over a generation if Scots voted Yes.

The numbers and arguments around oil and gas are bamboozling for voters, who, week in and week out, are served a dose of statistics to paint a black and white picture; to "prove" that the resources of the North Sea are a) a volatile and reducing commodity and it would be madness to base your economic future on it and b) there are decades more of the black gold underground that would help ease the birth of a newly independent Scotland.

Of course, both can be true. Oil and gas prices do go up and go down; they've been as low as $25 a barrel and as high as $150 over the past decade or so. The amount of reserves underground is limited; the Office for Budget Responsibility predicts oil revenue will drop 38% by 2017/18.

But would you rather it was there than not? Of course, you would. The Scottish Government, leaning heavily on the upper estimates, points out there will be £57bn in tax revenue by 2018. And having a plan to maximise how much revenue can be extracted is a no-brainer, whoever gets to manage it in the years ahead.

Oil expert Sir Ian Wood, whose report published yesterday was endorsed by both governments, said greater co-operation and collaboration should be used to get resources out of the ground.

We were originally told some 12bn barrels of oil, worth a not immodest £1 trillion, lay underground. But Sir Ian suggested that this was at the lower end and that, if things went well, it could be double this; 24bn barrels worth £2tr.

Now, taxpayers will not get to see anything like this amount but, even so, Sir Ian said that it should be possible to deliver at least three to four billion more barrels over the next 20 years - worth around £200bn to the future economy, whether Scottish or British.

But the problem for ordinary folk facing the polling booth on September 18 is that you cannot travel down two roads at once to see which one ends up at the better destination and this fact will more times than not help - by instilling doubt, those who urge people to stick with the path they are currently on - particularly given the rocky road we have all just had to endure.