Centrica chief executive Chris O’Shea has warned that the “demise” of the North Sea risks creating long-term unemployment across Aberdeen and wider Scotland.
Speaking to the BBC’s Big Boss Interview series, the British Gas boss said he was deeply concerned that job losses linked to declining oil and gas activity were not being replaced fast enough by emerging green industries.
He said his “big concern” is the fall in employment across the basin, adding that domestic gas production is both cheaper and cleaner than imported LNG.
The UK’s largest producer, Harbour Energy, announced job cuts earlier this year, while the Port of Aberdeen recently confirmed redundancies amid what it called a “staggering” drop in North Sea activity.
O’Shea warned that the national conversation is underplaying the scale of the threat.
“The energy transition is the right thing for us to do. It’s essential,” he said — but cautioned that the UK must be realistic about phasing out the basin.
He backed continued domestic production: “Whether you look at this from a cost point of view or whether you look at this from a carbon point of view or environmental point of view, the gas that you produce domestically will often be cheaper than the gas you import, and it will definitely be cleaner than the gas you import.”
Drawing parallels with the collapse of coal employment in Scotland, he said: "I grew up in the town of Fife, which was surrounded by coal mines. I saw the devastation when the coal mines were closed during the miners' strike and people that had incredibly well-paid jobs - they went to no work at all.
"You've got second, third-generation people that are not in work now. And I desperately want to avoid that through this transition."