In the hours following the news that BP is selling its North Sea business, I spoke with local representatives of the company.
Many of them have been with BP for decades, since it was British Petroleum. Their whole working lives. To them, it is unthinkable for that lineage to become a footnote in history.
It is achingly sad. But following similar moves by Shell and Total, it seems inevitable.
The damage caused by both Scotland’s governments has been too great for this marquee name to remain. I fear there will be more to come.
But how have we got here?
The North Sea has the best-regulated, safest, and cleanest oil and gas production pipeline you will find anywhere in the world.
Multinational companies send Aberdeen-trained chiefs and engineers to Africa, Asia and even Houston, Texas to give the benefit of their experience to colleagues abroad.
The grim joke that’s often told in meetings is that you find more Aberdeen accents abroad on rigs than you do here. There is a truth to that. Our skilled people are finding it easier to head elsewhere than wait for bad news here.
Meanwhile, other countries around the world are looking to their own energy security, quite rightly as costs soar worldwide.
It’s only the UK that has decided to accelerate the rate of decline in North Sea oil and gas, far below any graph drawn by anyone who knows anything about energy security.
It’s almost as if Labour and the SNP collectively decided at some point to plunge the controls to destroy UK oil and gas.
This was reckless and flew in the face of pragmatic climate scientists, who in their modelling priced in a slow downward curve over decades. New production would come from smaller fields at slower rates while the old big guns – Forties et al, would be decommissioned.
But Nicola Sturgeon wanted to destroy Cambo, Rosebank and Jackdaw, and Ed Miliband had the same desire. The briefings against were constant. Workers were “right wing” as were the Conservative politicians who turned out every week in Holyrood and Westminster to defend them.
Nothing in SNP energy policy – because there isn’t one – or Andy Burnham’s flapping proclamations about a “pragmatic approach” say those distorted views have changed. A phone call with President Trump means little without any actual policy to back it up.
As energy minister and minister for nuclear in the last Conservative government, I was very proud to work on initiatives that helped reduce pollution and saw Britain lead the world in low-carbon technologies.
But that was all done with the fact in mind that we still had, and have, a high domestic demand for oil and gas. This should be supplied from the North Sea. It makes total sense to use our own resources, with that world-leading regulatory and safety regime, and cut the carbon cost of pumping it from overseas. Sometimes, maddeningly, from Norway on the other side of the same sea.
During recent visits to Scotland, Kemi Badenoch has been unwavering in her support for Scots who depend on oil and gas, and the huge supply chain that generates billions for the economy. That rock-solid backing, as well as the excellent track record of my colleague Douglas Lumsden, generated a thumping victory in the Aberdeen South byelection last month.
Both the SNP and Labour were sent a message by voters who have had enough. Whether that message will eventually be received by the policy gurus at Bute House or No 10 remains to be seen. But I am deeply saddened that it is certainly too late for BP in the North Sea.
This article was originally published in the Scottish Daily Express.
