GORDON Brown will today set out radical plans to save the North Sea oil industry, including direct public investment in fields threatened with premature closure.
In one of his last major speeches before stepping down as an MP, the former Prime Minister will call for public and private sector partnerships to step in if rigs are mothballed while significant oil reserves remain under the sea.
He will urge ministers to recognise the industry is at a "tipping point," at which it could collapse without sustained support, and say government action will be needed to "make the most of our oil reserves".
While outlining proposals to maximise declining North Sea production, Mr Brown will also argue Scotland must use its "scientific genius" to start an economic revolution based on medical research, information technology and green energy.
He will claim 100,000 new jobs can be created in the sectors.
Mr Brown, the MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, will use the inaugural Wheatley lecture in Glasgow tonight to explain his economic vision for Scotland before he steps down from Parliament after 33 years.
He will argue that the government should be prepared buy up oil in advance, lend to operators or enter public/private partnerships to take over and run production facilities.
"In the most extreme cases, to avoid the field being mothballed in its entirety, the government could go into partnership for a take-over of the field.
"If it is temporarily abandoned, the government should act to ensure that sometime in the future it is possible to come back and exploit the oil.
"Ultimately the proposal is to make the most of our oil reserves, rather than to ignore them or to downplay their contribution in the future, particularly given the volatility of the world oil market and the strong prospect that prices could rise again," he will say.
He will add: "It is wrong to write off the North Sea, which could be producing oil for 40 years to come but we have to be realistic in that, if Sir Ian Wood (the Aberdeen-based oil tycoon) is right, we are reaching a tipping point and never again will the North Sea form as big a share of our economy as in the past."
Up to 24billion barrels of oil remain to be extracted according to industry estimates.
However, new fields are likely to be harder and more expensive to exploit.
Industry leaders have called on Chancellor George Osborne to use his forthcoming Budget to cut taxes on producers to help maintain investment and safeguard jobs.
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