Former Government Ministers sign 'North Sea for Net Zero' declaration
The group was led by Fergus Ewing MSP
Five former minsters from across the UK have signed a pledge calling for support from both the Scottish and UK Governments for the oil and gas industry.
Alistair Carmichael MP, Amber Rudd, Brian Wilson, Charles Hendry and Fergus Ewing MSP all signed the document at Aberdeen South Harbour.
It comes less than three weeks after the UK Government announced a windfall tax on oil and gas companies, something met with anger throughout the industry.
It's hoped that the declaration will help restore investor confidence within the industry as well as help reach net zero.
The Scottish Governments target is to reach net zero by 2045, whilst the UK Governments are slightly less ambitious, aiming for 2050.
The declaration states: "our oil and gas sector developed since the 1970s, and its businesses, workforce and infrastructure (the re-purposing of which greatly facilitates a number of the carbon storage projects) are of world class and constitute a huge asset to these islands."
It added: "The sector deserves the full support of all Governments in the UK as an essential contributor to the achievement of net zero targets."
Mr Ewing took charge of the group to sign the declaration, he said: "Counter intuitively, to deliver net zero, you need to have the skills, the experience and the expertise of the oil and gas industry, which has served Scotland in the UK so well, for half a century.
"To deliver net zero, you need to do things like carbon capture and storage to take the carbon out of industrial activities, out of gas production, and store it in the depleted oil fields, of which we have the large parts in Europe.
"The only people that can do this are the people that know how to drill, how to maintain pipelines, how to manage the reservoirs and how to operate in the unforgiving environment of the North Sea.
"That is the oil and gas industry".