A FEW elections ago, an overly optimistic Green candidate pitched up at a hustings in Aberdeenshire and announced that one of the first things he would do if elected was to abolish the oil industry and the monarchy.
Being in the area which has done very well economically out of both, it was a pitch for votes that, unsurprisingly, fell on deaf ears. Many businesses on Deeside, in the heart of the constituency, rely on tourists visiting nearby Balmoral for their livelihoods, while the number of large houses in this affluent part of Scotland show how many people have enjoyed the oil boom from the offshore industry.
But while the candidate was never likely to win votes in that part of the world, he was right in that Aberdeenshire, like the rest of the country, must adapt to life after oil and transition into a green economy.
The north-east has certainly done very well out of the oil and gas industry, but Scotland is missing out on the green energy revolution which is mostly taking place in the same sea that produced the oil.
In recent years, there has been a major expansion of offshore wind farms but the vast majority of jobs associated with them have gone overseas leaving Scottish yards with empty order books.
This is nothing short of a scandal.
Likewise, the country seems set to miss out on the future oil rig decommissioning boom with the structures that have already been taken offline being taken overseas to be broken up.
Mighty structures, built in yards like Ardersier, Nigg and Kishorn and pumping oil for more than four decades, are now ending their life in the sheltered Cromarty Firth before being taken overseas and broken up in countries such as Turkey.
According to estimates, decommissioning could be worth around £45 billion. The majority of this should be coming to Scotland and the rest of the UK but it has so far been slow in doing so.
Yards like Kishorn, Nigg and Ardersier employed thousands in their heyday constructing the rigs, and there is no real logical reason why they cannot be broken up there too and provide work for thousands more again.
Scotland has already missed out on one green energy boom when windfarms were first developed here in the 1980s but, rather than being backed, the technology instead was developed in Denmark which is now the world leader instead. The oil and gas industry is hard to replace in terms of prosperity and job creation but we really should be doing far better than at present.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel