The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)

Oil and gas fiasco is Labour’s fault

Sir, – As someone who has followed closely the unfolding economic vandalism in the North Sea by Labour, spearheade­d by Ed “Militant” Miliband, it was revealing to read the comments made by Treasury Minister James Murray in his recent meeting with industry leaders at the OEUK offices in Aberdeen when he said: “I think people recognise that there are challenges and there are decisions ahead which are going to be difficult.”

Really!

Perhaps he should have looked in the mirror first as undoubtedl­y the difficulty he refers to is of the government’s own making and has little or nothing to do with the oil sector which has been asked to do the impossible.

For example, on the one hand the oil companies have been told to fund half of the billions needed to decommissi­on defunct oil platforms and to help to implement the expensive transition­ing to intermitte­nt “green” energy, then in the same breath Labour want to impose draconian government taxes and ban new licences vital for a managed economic decline in activities in the North Sea. Nor does the minister appear to understand that companies like Shell only make around 5% of their profits from their North Sea operations and are spoilt for choice to go elsewhere to get an adequate return for their capital employed.

From the above clearly they have not learned the lessons of what happened in New Zealand when they had to abandon similar “illiterate economic policies” or face blackouts.

However the good news is that it is not too late for Labour to show they are prepared to listen to the industry leaders and at least match the generous capital allowances of the Norwegian sector to ensure the investment needed to protect the thousands of jobs in Aberdeen and the UK as a whole.

I will not be holding my breath!

Ian Lakin, Aberdeen.