Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the number of jobs on offshore (a) oil and (b) gas installations on the UK continental shelf in each year from 2016 to 2019; and what assessment he has made of trends in the level of those jobs in each year from 2020 to 2030.

Maintaining quality jobs benefitting from the skills and experience of the UK’s oil and gas sector will be a key focus as the UK moves to a net zero economy. The industry is already strongly focussed on its role to support net zero by using the skills and expertise developed in the North Sea to become part of the solution to the challenges that the transition to a net zero economy will bring.

The Department has not made an estimate of the number of jobs on offshore oil and gas installations on the UK Continental Shelf, but figures provided in the Oil and Gas UK Workforce Report 2019, suggest a recent stabilisation in the total number of offshore oil and gas workers (not broken down into oil and gas separately) at approximately 49,000. See the following weblink:

https://oilandgasuk.co.uk/product/workforce-report/

The Department has not made an assessment of trends in the level of those jobs in each year from 2020 to 2030, but the offshore industry skills body OPITO has published two recent reports on future trends in the level of jobs supported by the UK Continental Shelf oil and gas industry up to 2035. See the following weblinks:

https://www.opito.com/policy-and-research/research/ukcs-workforce-dynamics-review

https://www.opito.com/policy-and-research/research/the-skills-landscape

Future employment levels are subject to a wide range of factors, not least the oil price, and we are supporting the sector on several fronts, as we recognise that a successful offshore industry will continue to generate and protect jobs.