Not just impacting Aberdeen; my son’s been laid off, his firm produce chemicals that help separate gas from oil (used in the pipelines) – at current prices it’s not worth recovering the gas…

This, or at least the principle, has also been raised by environmentalists. If certain processes become uneconomical then they will stop. This means we get less out of our barrel and polute more. There have been some good developments in recent years driven by the high cost of oil. Even if it is cheap, burning it in vast quantities is still bad for the environment and the supply is still finite.

Personally our company supplies huge numbers of products to the O+G industry. I can see this having a knockon effect in the medium term.

Seriously, is there any other industry which is so heavily taxed on any profits?

Is there any other industry which causes so much pollution and makes all its profits exploiting a natural resource belonging to the country not the company?

Is there any other industry which causes so much pollution and makes all its profits exploiting a natural resource belonging to the country not the company?

Mining.

Is there any other industry which causes so much pollution

Well if you are talking about the pollution that comes from the use of the fuel then you would have to point the finger at the entire chain of both users (i.e. us) and suppliers. If you are talking about the pollution that is caused by the production then I’d say that in the North sea, this is pretty minimal. I don’t work in other parts of the world so I’m not able to comment on that.

and makes all its profits exploiting a natural resource belonging to the country not the company?

any type of mineral extraction would fall under this envelope as governments don’t typically operate the companies that extract raw materials.

Have you seen any photos of a uranium mine?

Am I?

You do realise that the uk is still as one and the drop in oil price will also screw the Westminster govt and it’s projected income etc.

You do realise that the price of oil makes rather less difference to the UK budget than it does to Scotland’s budget? Somewhat surprisingly this means that the oil price would have to be significantly higher in order to balance the UK’s budget than to balance Scotland’s budget. However when the oil price drops the Scottish tax revenues decrease by a rather larger proportion than that of the UK – an indy Scotland would be far, far more screwed to use your terminology. I suspect you’ll find that Scotland has a significantly higher % deficit for this financial year than the whole of the UK, having gone into the referendum proclaiming how it was a net contributor.

Who knows, maybe the projections are wrong (nobody was predicting current oil prices 6 months ago) and by the time independence would have happened the oil price has recovered enough for Scotland to be doing better than rUK. Who knows?

I find it a bit difficult to sympathise with people who have made a lot of money working in the oild industry losing jobs.
You knew it was a finite supply with prices set about as artificially as diamonds didn’t you?
Downsize time kiddies. Same for all those who piggy backed off their gains. Obviously you saved against this day…

Well, we don’t want or need your sympathy. Working in the oil industry is a risky business, whether from the personal or the company perspective, which is precisely why the pay is generally good – to compensate for the bad times, or the threat thereof, and the necessity to work in some of the world’s more unpleasant localities.

But as long as you lot keep driving cars and switching on the lights, there’ll be a need for the stuff, and Mother Nature ain’t making any more – or at least not very quickly.

Well said drj

I have a feeling those that have forgotten that will be hardest hit.

Short memorys and long credit terms.

aracer – Member
doh » Love the fact the OP is using this as a dig at Indy voters.
Am I?

Yes. And you just did it again up there^

Did I?

The industry survived the last lot of lean years in a surprisingly healthy way, despite the statements from the doom-mongers at the start of that price fall.
It will survive again. The oil industry is notorious for volatility and for seeking special treatment, the moment there’s a sniff of harder times. They will get over it; as a whole, the oil industry still takes a huge amount of profit through the North Sea and cannot afford not to be there in strength when the price inevitably goes back up. Little will really change, except for the peripheral and supporting workers on short contracts, for whom I have considerably sympathy and understanding.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-30731793

Shame Sturgeon didn’t feel the same way about the marine renewable industry she quietly shut down once Salmond was out the picture.

Shame Sturgeon didn’t feel the same way about the marine renewable industry she quietly shut down once Salmond was out the picture.

Got a source/link for that?

Yet another dig at indy voters?

We did discuss this on another thread. In reposnce to OPs question I think it was around the $100 price and not only that they were very optimistic about future discoveries.

EDIT Sturgeon asking for more handouts, both priceless and predictable

Did you read the article in the OP? Surely it would need to be a lot higher than that to balance the books in the same context as the price they were suggesting for other countries to balance their books – ie zero deficit. $100 sounds about right for parity with current UK deficit.

Yet another dig at indy voters?

whats it got to do with indy voters?

@aracer – I did read it, I understand what you are saying too, I wasnt think of it in terms of a zero debt but of a workable economy. I think the issue of how much oil they claimed they where going to find was pretty significant. We all know an iS would be pretty poor at $50