Fears for the future of the North Sea
More than half of offshore workers polled say the oil and gas industry's future is in doubt without government help while almost a quarter believe the sector has no future
More than half of nearly 800 offshore workers polled say the oil and gas industry's future is in doubt without government help while almost a quarter believe the sector has no future.
The bleak picture emerged in a survey by the union Unite.
A total of 55% of those surveyed said the industry would only survive with government intervention and 24% said they could see no future for the offshore industry in the UK''.
Just 6.9% believe the industry has a healthy future.
The Scottish and UK governments are not doing enough to support the offshore sector, 95.3% of workers surveyed said.
Almost nine in 10 of the 779 surveyed - 89.6% - backed Unite's call for the governments to buy stakes in offshore infrastructure such as pipelines or platforms.
Unite Scottish secretary Pat Rafferty said: The message from our members and other offshore workers in this survey is clear - unless government starts to come up with some new thinking for the oil and gas industry, the future is looking very bleak.
We have made repeated calls for a summit to bring together energy companies, trade unions, the Scottish Government and the UK Government, so that we can start planning for the future.
It's never happened, and we just can't understand why.
We have repeatedly called on the Scottish Government and the UK Government to consider using their borrowing powers to take out public stakes in new offshore infrastructure, and to help protect existing infrastructure that might otherwise be decommissioned.
We believe public stakes would encourage companies to also invest, supporting jobs, and creating returns for the public purse in the future.
We are in the middle of a crisis, and unless there is action soon we could be approaching a point of no return. That would be devastating for the Scottish economy, particularly in the north east.
Offshore workers are the people worst affected by this crisis - with attacks on their working conditions and as many as 120,000 jobs in the industry and wider economy forecast to be lost by the end of this year.
Our members are clear - to protect their livelihoods and skills we need government action now.''