North Sea Oil and Gas Workers: Transitional Support

Pippa Heylings Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd April 2025 Westminster Hall

[Pippa Heylings (South Cambridgeshire) (LD)]

It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Sir Desmond. I thank the hon. Member for Aberdeen North (Kirsty Blackman) for securing this critical debate and for her compelling speech, in which she laid out the situation in her constituency in terms of the number of job losses and the increasing poverty. As my hon. Friend the Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone) did later, she also talked about the loss of skilled workers and jobs to overseas countries.

Managing the transition from a North sea dominated by oil and gas to a North sea with a future for commercially viable renewable energy is critical to the UK’s reaching its climate targets by 2030. The North sea can have a new and bright future if we get things right, which will enable us to strengthen our energy security, reduce skyrocketing energy prices for our households and businesses, secure the UK’s global leadership in floating offshore wind and, importantly, rebuild our manufacturing and port capacity while delivering transitional skills, pathways and jobs for the highly skilled workers and for the thousands of people currently employed in the supply chains for oil and gas.

We Liberal Democrats are opposed to the new oilfields at Jackdaw and Rosebank, and we want the Government to commit to the winding-down of the oil and gas industry, as was agreed among all countries at COP28. The reality is that new drilling will not provide jobs or protect workers in a declining basin.

[Harriet Cross]

It is estimated that Jackdaw could provide 5% of the UK’s gas needs. Would the hon. Member, and the Liberal Democrats, prefer that we imported that LNG from elsewhere instead?

[Pippa Heylings]

As I consistently said during the debate about the new oilfields at Jackdaw and Rosebank, none has provided the jobs predicted, which were all offshored to Dubai. On the gas dependency that we have talked about, it is critical that we make sure that we have homegrown energy so that we can take Putin’s boot off our necks. That is the way.

After 50 years of intensive extraction, the North sea is now an ageing and expensive basin. The transition away from oil and gas production is already under way, with reserves in terminal and irreversible decline. Jobs in the UK’s oil and gas industry have more than halved in the past decade: 227,000 direct roles have disappeared, despite the issuing of 400 new drilling licences and record profits for the major oil companies. Moreover, losses in supply chains far outnumber those in the industry. That is neither fair nor just. We must act now to ensure that the transition ahead supports the workers and communities who, as my hon. Friend the Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross so eloquently said, have powered Britain for generations, and ensure that they are not left behind.

The future of the North sea can be bright: we boast some of Europe’s best sites for renewable energy. Our current installed capacity of 50 wind farms already accounts for about a quarter of global offshore wind capacity, and our offshore wind potential surpasses our projected energy demand, making it key to our energy security. However, the Liberal Democrats have always been clear that the only way to create long-term, secure jobs is to invest in supporting workers to transition into clean energy industries. The unjust transition of the oil refinery at Grangemouth is a clear illustration—a warning of what happens without early Government intervention and investment, showing that such decisions cannot be left to industry alone.

What jobs are we talking about? We are talking about new jobs within the new manufacturing supply chain and our own domestic green energy supply chain. The UK has consistently failed to seize the full economic benefits of our leadership in offshore wind. As we have heard today, the vast majority of Britain’s offshore wind capacity is owned by foreign companies, and the typical North sea turbine still contains three times more imported material than UK-made content. We need to make sure that our turbines are manufactured here and that our port capacity, in both manufacturing and fixed and floating offshore capacity, is enabled, or that will also be given to other countries. That could create an estimated 23,000 good green jobs, both directly and through supply chains.

[Barry Gardiner]

I appreciate the hon. Lady’s remarks. Does she agree that one way in which Britain could help ensure that the transition is not only just, but orderly and managed, would be to do what countries such as Denmark have done—join the Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance?

[Pippa Heylings]

Yes, we should join the Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance. We very much support that. Following COP28, we are looking forward to COP30. Hopefully, the UK can once again demonstrate global leadership, as part of an alliance of other countries that finally has a clear transition pathway.

Our UK port capacity is currently one of the key bottlenecks slowing our renewables roll-out. UK ports and dock-side facilities urgently require upgrades so that they can handle industrial-scale floating offshore wind, including access channel size, landside availability and crane capacity. The Government’s proposed National Wealth Fund is welcome, but we need to see that it is secured and even expanded.

We need to make sure that workers are prioritised as part of the new manufacturing industry and the supply chains. Research has shown that over 90% of the UK’s oil and gas workforce have transferable skills, but face a lack of support in transitioning to the clean pathway. As vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on climate change, I was pleased to meet an oil and gas worker from Aberdeen last month as part of a roundtable to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing workers. She described how Aberdeen has an abundance of STEM skills ready to drive forward the transition to clean energy, but workers are having to pay out of their own pockets to gain new qualifications, often duplicating qualifications that they already have.

It is clear that more concrete support is needed to support workers in finding and moving into alternative employment, from improving the energy skills passport to addressing training barriers and, more broadly, delivering a new deal for the North sea that has workers’ needs at its core. Will the Minister commit and show us how the Government plan to ensure that clear, accessible pathways are in place to support workers to move between industries?

In conclusion, Putin’s barbaric and illegal invasion of Ukraine exposes the risks of relying on countries that may seek to exploit our dependence on fossil fuels and use it to their advantage. Oil and gas workers built the foundations of Britain’s energy system. As we chart a new path forward, it is our moral and economic duty to ensure that they are not abandoned but empowered, respected and placed at the very centre of that journey.

--- Later in debate ---

[Andrew Bowie]

Yes, of course we believe in net zero, but not in setting arbitrary targets and dates that are unachievable without making this country poorer or more reliant on foreign imports for our energy supply. The fact is that imports of LNG have doubled just to keep the lights on as we actively accelerate the decline in our own North sea oil and gas industry. That is nonsensical—it is madness. It is an act of national self-harm. We should revert to our policy of maximum economic recovery from the North sea while doing all we can to ensure that the companies involved invest in new technologies.

[Pippa Heylings]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Andrew Bowie]

I am conscious of time, but I will be delighted to give way.

[Pippa Heylings]

I could not resist; I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way, given the time limit. He is talking about how important language is, but is it not considered to be an act of national self-harm to talk down the incredible opportunity for the North sea to be a global leader?