SKILLS are being lost and communities left at risk of re-running the “trauma” experienced in Grangemouth, as the creation of clean energy jobs fails to match declining North Sea oil and gas, MPs have warned.

A cross-party Scottish affairs committee report on the future of Scotland’s oil and gas industry, forming the first part of its inquiry into state-owned GB Energy and net zero transition, cited Grangemouth oil refinery’s closure earlier this year as a case study in how jobs and skills were being lost.

It slammed a “lack of action” from both British and Scottish governments which “created an avoidable employment gap and trauma for the local community.”

Committee chairwoman Patricia Ferguson urged the government to set out its learning from Grangemouth, to ensure “just transition principles,” which avoid that trauma and promote the vital skills needed to build a clean energy sector being lost overseas.

She said:  “It’s vital that the government moves quickly to plug this employment gap, replace jobs being lost and ensure a smooth energy transition for workers and communities. 

“Until this is tackled, the government should avoid making decisions that would further accelerate oil and gas production’s decline.”

Insisting that under the government’s clean energy jobs “Scotland could see over 40,000 new jobs by 2030,” a Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson commented: “We are not willing to accept the status quo we inherited of the North Sea being in decline.

“This is why we have taken rapid steps to deliver the next generation of good jobs for North Sea workers in a fair and orderly transition, including by making the biggest investment in offshore wind and carbon capture.”