SNP leaders are good ‘friends’ to North Sea oil industry

Protesters call for Labour to stop plans for more drilling in the North Sea (Pic: @fossilfreeLDN on X)

As forests in Scotland burn, Scottish National Party (SNP) politicians are calling on Andy Burnham to back the oil and gas industry.

Their calls came after BP bosses announced they’d sell off their operations in the North Sea.

SNP Westminster leader Dave Doogan said, “We need decisive action to safeguard jobs, energy security and confidence in the North Sea.”

Kirsty Blackman, SNP MP for Aberdeen North—a city that boasts of being the oil capital of Europe—blames net zero policies and high taxation. “This is the direct result of policy enforced from Labour governments in Westminster,” she said.

Stephen Flynn, SNP MSP for Aberdeen Deeside and North Kincardine has said there will be “fury” with the Westminster government after BP’s decision.

When elected to the Scottish Parliament in May, he said the oil and gas industry would have “no better friend” than the SNP.

The real reason why BP is selling its North Sea oil business is nothing to do with net zero—the North Sea simply isn’t profitable enough. The North Sea only accounts for 117,000 barrels out of BP’s daily 2.3 million barrels of oil produced.

BP is the last major operator to have left the North Sea. ExxonMobil, Chevron, TotalEnergies and others have merged, spun off, sold or reduced their North Sea operations over the past ten years.

Gordon, a former oil and gas worker in Scotland told Socialist Worker that the North Sea is a “mature basin” with production on the decline. Major oil companies are moving away from the North Sea towards more profitable areas, while smaller independent firms and investment capital ventures suck up what’s left.

Gordon said this is part of the “corporate manoeuvring to milk the last profits from the declining reserves in the North Sea”.

Independent firms make money by buying up mostly depleted fields on the cheap and cutting costs to get the last of the oil and gas. “This is small scale stuff the majors wouldn’t really bother in but it can make real money for the independents,” Gordon said. “Only because they will cut operations right down to the bare minimum and they will try to aggressively cut the operating costs.”

“In reality this means cutting staff,” Gordon added. And it also means cuts to maintenance costs, risking workers’ health and safety.

These independent firms aren’t thinking about long term job sustainability. “They will want to produce as much oil and gas as possible,” Gordon said.

A recent environmental impact assessment by oil company Adura—a joint operation between Shell and Norwegian firm Equinor—shows that exploiting the Jackdaw gas field, for instance, would only create 27 permanent jobs.

Scottish oil and gas also doesn’t lower fuel costs. North Sea oil is sold on the international market, with very little of it actually staying in Britain. And oil companies pay very little tax.

In 2024 Equinor—the company behind the Rosebank development—made £22 billion and paid no tax at all in Britain. Shell—which oversees much of the North Sea’s oil operations—also paid no meaningful tax, and took £12 million back in tax relief.

Ithaca Energy, which owns 20 percent of the Rosebank development, is majority owned by Israeli firm Delek. Delek is named on a United Nations list of Israeli companies profiting from the occupation of the West Bank in Palestine. Doing business with Delek violates the fourth Geneva Convention and the Scottish government’s own boycott, divestment and sanctions policies.

Some Scottish energy companies are also complicit in Israeli genocide. Aberdeen-based Wood Group is behind the Dorad Power Station in Ashkelon in Israel—known to Palestinians as al-Majdal—Wood Group called Dorad the “cornerstone of extensive operations in Israel”.

Not only does North Sea oil contribute to climate breakdown, it aids Israeli genocide and does nothing to help workers. Movements need to force the Scottish government to end investment in fossil fuels.

The energy transition is happening anyway, but workers are being left behind. Workers need a real just transition, not more investment in dried up oil fields.