Opening new North Sea oil fields will not provide a “practical” solution to the energy crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
The First Minister rejected a call from Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross to “maximise” the output from the North Sea and bring nuclear power into the energy mix.
In Holyrood exchanges the First Minister said the immediate action that needed to be taken was for the UK chancellor to offset the soaring costs of heating homes.
Ross said the Ukraine war had changed the situation dramatically and called for a review of Scotland’s energy strategy.
He told the chamber: “Scotland could deliver a blow to Putin by increasing oil and gas production now. It is not the time to be ideological, it is the time to be practical and realistic.”
The Tory leader said the UK purchased £3 billion year in oil and gas imports , including Russian supplies, and called for nuclear power to become part of Scotland’s energy mix.
Taking a swipe at anti-nuclear Green leader Patrick Harvie for laughing, Ross said: “Surely now is the time to maximise on gas production in Scotland, using the energy on our own doorstep.”
But Sturgeon said “it could be years, if not decades” for nuclear power and for fields like the new Cambo scheme to come online, both options she does not approve of.
She added: “Even if we were to put to one side the environmental considerations, given the timescales and the practicalities involved it is not credible to suggest that the short term solution to this crisis lies in increasing North Sea production, existing fields in the North Sea are not currently operating under capacity.”
Sturgeon said the same was true of commissioning new nuclear power plants which take decades to come on stream.
She said that assistance from the UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak “including substantial and significant action” to shield households across the UK from that impact of rising energy prices was the short-term solution.
Sturgeon added: “We need to find the solutions and we need to make sure that we are accelerating that transition to renewable and low carbon energy because that’s the solution to reduce dependence on Russian oil and gas over the medium to long term. But it’s also frankly the responsible action to take in response to the climate emergency.”
Conservative MSP Douglas Lumsden also tackled the First Minister on the issue, pointing to splits in the SNP and saying opposition to expanding North Sea production was "crumbling within her own party".
Sturgeon responded: "I was to stand here right now and say let's increase North Sea production, the timescales do not offer a solution. Let's not grasp at false solutions."
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