UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has accused the Scottish Government of turning its back on the oil and gas industry after it proposed a presumption against further exploration in the North Sea.
At PMQs yesterday, he seized upon the SNP-Green administration's new energy strategy, saying Holyrood did not want to support the industry in Scotland "and the 200,000 jobs that it produces".
The PM warned that curtailing further exploration in the North Sea would backfire on the environment by increasing the amount of oil and gas that would have to be imported with more than double the carbon footprint.
Arguing that Britons will continue to rely on hydrocarbons "for decades to come as we transition to net-zero", Mr Sunak said it "obviously makes sense" for them to be produced domestically and "support tens of thousands of jobs in Scotland".
Stephen Flynn, the SNP's new Westminster leader, said the First Minister's blueprint would allow the development of new fields where they were required to "improve national energy security" and it would be "madness" to rely on imports instead.
Benchmark
But he said the strategy sets an extremely-high benchmark for any new exploration, including the impact of "any new oil and gas production on global greenhouse gas emissions in the context of meeting the Paris Agreement" target to limit warming to 1.5C.
Although the strategy claims that renewables could eventually create 57,000 posts, there is widespread industry scepticism about whether they could ever replace all the highly-paid jobs in the North Sea.
Mr Flynn used Prime Minister's Questions to ask about Scottish independence, but Mr Sunak seized on a reference he made to the energy crisis.
Pressed to "reaffirm" his support for the North Sea and its workers, the PM said: "Consuming oil and gas from the North Sea means less than half the carbon footprint of importing that same oil and gas, which obviously makes sense to do it here and in the process support tens of thousands of jobs in Scotland.
"I can reassure him that the Scottish oil and gas industry has this Government's wholehearted support."
Mr Flynn was asked to declare his stance on the strategy. Asked whether he supported a presumption, the Aberdeen South MP told a TV programme: "I do."
Mr Flynn said: "That presumption against is based on having a clear and coherent climate-compatibility checkpoint, a checkpoint which includes - and this is very important - a point in relation to energy security.
"So if there is an energy-security requirement, then why of course would you not utilise your own gas rather than import it? That would be madness."