Glass half full, glass half empty
Posted on
March 02, 2013 by
Rev. Stuart Campbell
Well, this is odd.
“A recovery in North Sea oil and gas investment is set to generate £100bn of economic stimulus and hand the Chancellor a £25bn bonus through extra tax receipts, new figures showed on Monday.”
(The Telegraph, 25 February 2013)
“An independent Scotland would begin with a £4 billion black hole in its finances due to a fall in oil revenues, UK Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said yesterday.”
(The Scotsman, 2 March 2013)
Looks like that Reverse Perception Field at the border is still working, then.
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
To be fair, both of these things could be true-ish. Danny isn’t quoted as saying that these new investments would reduce the tax take, The Telegraph didn’t say when the extra tax revenues would come in. And nobody mentioned the elephant in the room – the UK’s current deficit. What you don’t say can be just as revealing as what you do say.
I’m not going to read the Scotsman piece, does Danny Alexander explain how he reaches this conclusion?
By the way, this reminds me of something from the other week. Everyone was going on about the AAA thing in the Better Together leaflet, but the latest leaflet had this down as a “fact”: Scotland “can squeeze out every last drop of oil before it runs out and won’t be left paying billions of clean-up costs by itself”.
I am led to believe that it isn’t countries who take charge of decommissioning fields and dealing with the clean-up, it’s whichever company is contracted to do so. Has anyone gone into this in more detail? What do Better Together mean by Scotland having to “pay billions of clean-up costs by itself?”
Hmm! one story is for Unionists
the other for those who should be unionists.
BBC Scotlandshire is convinced the effect is because Alex Salmond has created a parallel universe http://www.bbc.scotlandshire.co.uk/index.php/city-news/195-alex-salmond-accused-of-creating-parallel-universe.html Since they probably are better at Science than you are, Rev, since you are a spiritual gentleman and all that, I’m inclined to go with their explanation.
Wahey, Niko is back!
So the first story isn’t meant to be seen by us evil Nats – it’s only the second one we should be reading, so that we can become Unionists, as we should be.
Oh well Niko, at least you’re honest.
Niko
It depends on what current Government legislation and the licenses state, right now the taxpayer is responsible as they are also largely for cleaning up accidental spills too, the North Sea has one of the lowest rates of fines for spills in the world. If we were independent we could on the next licensing round force companies to take some of the burden for decomissioning.
Even so, with over £1.5 trillion pounds worth of Oil left, the £20 billion clean up cost is not that much of a concern if we have the foresight to save some of this money like sensible countries do. That is of course if we become independent, if we dont then it’ll be just like the MoD’s nuclear waste, it will never get cleaned up.
A glass from which production is now 62% down from its 1999 peak, and which is declining at around 9% a year on average.
Facts are sheep which don’t go ping, or whatever the saying is.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/crude-oil-and-petroleum-production-imports-and-exports-1890-to-2011
Am I also right in saying that Danny Alexander’s words are about a prediction in a few years’ time?
The Coalition’s predictions have been dire to say the least over economic recovery. And besides Better Together have been at pains to say relying on oil is silly due to unpredictability.
I’m so confused.
There are of course some simple minded people who believe unreservedly any data put out by any Government Department about anything and don’t believe politics could play even a teeny weeny part in any of it.
This is callled the 45minWMD phenomena
Ah, of course the official oil production stats, which collate data from independent private companies and which are scrutinised and checked by banks, governments and international bodies around the world, are “all lies” and can be blissfully ignored by those who wish to stick their fingers in their ears and sing “La la la, we can rely on oil revenue to fund “independence””.
Hermione – the biggest surprise is that you believe British Government statistics which have been contradicted so many times by the oil companies themselves – if you don’t know why the British Treasury does this I may as well stop now. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and imagine that you desperately want to believe unionist lies because really you want Scotland to be shit. Quotes from the companies:
TAQA and Fairfield energy have recently struck oil in the North Sea. Statoil (you know the Norwegian state oil company that hasn’t wasted £400 billion on vanity projects and illegal wars) is developing a £4.5 billion project which is the largest offshore project in more than decade and is expected to create 700 jobs in the northeast of Scotland. Estimates recovery of 55,000 barrells of oil daily.
According to analysis commissioned by OilandGasPeople the North Sea looks set for an employment boom!
Frequent statements from the oil companies are that there as much oil to recover as has already been drilled – and they only estimate 40 years in advance.
I work onshore, manufacturing for the oil industry.
We have been told to buy as many machines and employees to operate them as we can, and the oil companies will guarantee the work.
It is absolutely booming!
You can tell Hermione doesn’t work in oil and gas.
Bit like George and Dave when they came up to visit us. I remember everyone giggling at Dave when he gave his wee speech in Aberdeen (‘what’s that f’in numpty talking about – clueless twat’ and comments to that effect from senior engineers etc). After all, the NE is the home of the SNP. It was like Alex Salmond giving a speech on the merits of socialism to a local Tory club in Hampshire.
The one thing you don’t do if you are an oil and gas producer is tell the local government how much you have in the ground (well not about all of it anyway). That’s like showing your hand to everyone at the poker table; prepare to be screwed by the tax man.
Personally, the oil (which should continue so see good production for the next 60 years and continue to at least 100) should be considered an ‘extra’ asset. Most countries don’t have any. With prices projected to remain generally high, that’s one hell of an asset to have.
Although the fact that we are somewhere around the peak confirms independence is imperative so that what remains can be managed in the best interests of Scotland.
As we know, the UK has totally mismanaged this resource; billions of ‘extra’ income it never expected to have pissed up against a wall. It’s like having found a pot of gold in your back garden and just spent the whole lot as fast as you can leaving yourself without a brass farthing and massively in debt.
The largest oil and gas reserves in the EU and not a penny to show for it. That’s Tory fiscal prudence for you (Labour you’d expect to piss it up against a wall).
Good news is we’re seeing a big revival at the moment with investment levels not seen since the early 80’s, i.e. when things were really kicking off in the beginning.
http://news.stv.tv/north/215286-north-sea-oil-investment-at-30-year-high-says-oil-and-gas-uk/
Aberdeen is buzzing due to both this and the fact that Scotland will soon be independent.
That and of course the global oil and gas service sector is one of the largest contributors to the UK’s balance of foreign trade. That does not actually require any local oil at all! Our company (specialist gas hydrate and flow assurance services does ~30% North Sea / 70% global for example and business is booming.
@S_S
It’s like having found a pot of gold in your neighbour’s back garden and just spent the whole lot as fast as you can
Juteman
Just how much is it ‘buy’ an employee in these days of austerity??
http://www.oilandgasuk.co.uk/economics.cfm
Economics
Over the last four decades, a total of £486 billion (2011 money) has been invested in exploring for, developing and producing the UK’s oil and gas reserves.
In 2011, the sector was the largest industrial investor spending £9.9 billion on exploration and new developments, while operating costs were £7 billion.
Oil and gas production from the UKCS has contributed over £300 billion (2011 money) in tax revenues over the last forty years.
In 2011/12, the industry paid £11.2 billion in tax on production, which is almost one quarter of total corporation taxes received by the Exchequer. The wider supply chain is estimated to have contributed another £6 billion in corporate and payroll taxes.
In 2011, UK oil and gas production saved the UK importing energy worth £40 billion and the balance of trade in goods and services was further boosted by the export of oilfield goods and services to the tune of £6 billion.
The industry supported at least 440,000 jobs across the UK.
Energy Policy
Three quarters of the UK’s current primary energy demand is met by oil and gas. In 2011, oil produced on the UKCS satisfied 68% of domestic demand while gas produced in the UK met 58% of demand.
Oil and gas production from the UK sector of the North Sea peaked in 1999, but the UK remains a substantial producer today.
In 2011, the UK was the 19th largest oil and gas producer (in Europe, 3rd largest for gas and 2nd for oil).
Over the last four decades, 41 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) have been extracted on the UKCS. In 2011, the combined production of oil and gas was 1.8 million boe per day.
In 2020, it is estimated that 70% of primary energy consumed in the UK will still come from oil and gas, even upon achievement of the Government’s target to source 15% of energy from renewable sources.
The UKCS has the potential to satisfy around 60% of the UK’s oil and gas demand in 2020, if investment is sustained.
You can appreciate why this is a handy asset to have anyway.
@Hermione
Help me out here…
What is the difference between production and available reserves? Did you count the new oil fields that have been found. Did you realise that we have more oil in Scottish waters than Saudi Arabia.
Do you understand that if Scotland keeps the oil and gas in its waters then there is more to share for longer due to having to support a smaller population than the whole of the UK.
As things stand there is enough oil reserves with todays technology for 60 years in the Union – I wonder how technology will have advanced in the next 20-30 years.
There is plenty of gas to support a Scottish population. Problems start to arise when its shared across the UK as a whole – there isn’t enough and thats why we import it to prop up the amount coming from the North Sea. Having your energy reliance on the goodwill of another nation such as Russia is perhaps not the best free market model – but there you are and thats the position that the UK finds its self in today.
Tony Blair should have sorted out electricity supply for the south of England long ago – he didn’t and neither did Gordon Brown, so there is another fine mess left up to the tories south of the border to sort out.
I can see you are a glass half empty kind of person, so perhaps its best to leave it there – understanding grown up stuff is not you bag now is it – kind of like Tony and gordon didn’t understand it either.
I wonder, would the UK have built up an oil fund if the oil had been discovered in English waters?
@ray – you are correct that its the oil companies that are responsible for O&G Decom costs, but remember that these are primarily funded through tax relief on these costs from – currently – the UK government. Fergus Ewing, in front of a Westminster committee on this issue a few months ago argued strongly that as it was the UK that had benefited from O&G revenues for the past 40 years, post independence they should shoulder their share of the costs of decom.
Predictably he was howled down as naive/grasping/simplistic/stupid/outrageous by the MSM, but I suspect that Decom costs will quietly go into the mix of asset/liability split following a yes vote next year.
@ Niko.
Between £25-40k for a skilled machinist. Slightly less for someone without experience.
I think we can now start selling the removal of the burden of a declining and unpredictable NS oil industry from the rUK economy as a separation dividend for them. It’ll be hard, risky & nerve wracking, but I think an independent Scotland is ready to take on the challenge.
Niko,
We’re taking on new staff at an incredible rate; doubled in size since 2010.
Good pay too across a range of positions; not Tory workfare exploitation stuff that’s for sure.
I look forward to the day when all the business tax we’re paying is used wisely by a government I voter for rather than used to pay bankers bonuses for their failure by governments I did not.
Given that the number of Yes voters in polls consistently exceeds the number which delivered Y majorities in 1979 (32.9% although 32.5% would have been enough) and 1997 (38.4% Y+Y, although 30.8% would have carried it in majority), this isn’t long away…
I have said this before on here and elsewhere. I live in Aberdeenshire and am witness to the oil related building which is taking place in an around Aberdeen. Oil companies are building office accomodation like klondykers setting up tents in a gold mining camp! Also my two sons work in the oil and gas industry and have been told officially by their respective companies that hydrocarbon reserves in the North Sea have at least another 40 to 50 years of production.
The UK Government is involved in a black propaganda exercise of trying to convince the people of Scotland that their oil is of little or no value to them. The facts are that an independent Scotland will have at least another 40 years of oil and gas reserves to help build a thriving economy. As Big Eck would say “Facts are chiels that winnae ding”.
Bill C – I wonder if Hermione is hiding in one of those “tents”. That’s what you get for believing Britnat politicians or their statistics! Come back Hermione they fooled all of us for a time. Their day is done. Britian is not just stinking it’s sinking. Unfortunately once again it’s the ordinary people who will pay – that’s the British way in case anyone didn’t know!
As a company, we find the current Tory-led government very anti-business. As we operate globally and are highly specialist, we need to recruit globally.
Tories have us now filling out multiple forms/on the phone for hours trying make sense of all the complex new rules and regulations they’ve introduced; basically jumping through hoops just to recruit staff (when desperate for this) due to their pathological dislike of anyone not British.
Aye, Tories; the anti-business, pro-bureaucracy and red tape party. That and a joke at any form of fiscal prudence/investment sense.
But then I guess that’s only to be expected from a party that supports dependence, living on government grants, not standing on your own two feet etc.
Oh dear. Why do people persist in quoting words when numbers are so much more powerful?
Oil production
1999 137.099 kt
2007 76,575 kt
2008 71,665 kt
2009 68,199 kt
2010 62,962 kt
2011 51,972 kt
All sourced from https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/crude-oil-and-petroleum-production-imports-and-exports-1890-to-2011
Would the “Bill McLean” person who claimed that these figures have been “contradicted by oil companies” please PROVIDE A CITATION?
Thought not.
As for the “Adrian B” person claiming “there is more oil in Scottish waters than Saudi Arabia”:
Proven reserves at end 2011
Saudi Arabia 265.4 bn bbl
UK 2.8 bn bbl
Source:
http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle800.do?categoryId=9037161&contentId=7068605
Oh dear.
Nobody is claiming that NSea oil is not important. Nobody is claiming that the industry in Aberdeen is not becoming an important hub for doing work around the world.
But the NSea itself is a mature, declining and rapidly getting more expensive province. All these new discoveries which Nats keep trumpeting about amount no more than reducing the rate of decline by approximately the thickness of the line on the graph.
Go on, prove me wrong. With numbers, not words.
@Hermione.
Someone said you were a Labourite. Is that true? You come across as more of a Blue Labourite/Tory.
If it quacks like a duck,,,,,,,,,,,
o/t Beppe Grillo has 1,272,521 Facebook likes and 1,025,225 twitter followers, and his party has just become the biggest single party in Italy. Perhaps YesScotland can learn some lessons from this.
BTW Hemione, i’ve worked in engineering for over 30 years, and i’ve never seen such a boom in oil related work.
Maybe the truth is that the British Establishment is shit scared about the loss of Scotlands revenues, and this is the real/only reason they want to hang on to us?
“Oh dear. Why do people persist in quoting words when numbers are so much more powerful?”
Nobody has claimed North Sea production isn’t falling. It clearly is. That, however, is a meaningless statistic, which is probably why people don’t quote it. What counts is the price, and therefore the tax revenues. In January 1999 (your chosen start point, not mine) the price of Brent Crude was $16 a barrel:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_tzaM6bAYiCU/SUVT8HLnupI/AAAAAAAAANY/o3kIStmQ5K0/s1600/Oil_Price_1999_2008_.jpg
That’s around $24 adjusted for inflation. The current price of Brent Crude is $111 a barrel:
http://www.oil-price.net/index.php?lang=en
and is forecast to stay stable around that level all year. So while current production may be only 38% of 1999 levels, the value to the Exchequer of that production (adjusted for inflation) is roughly 75% higher.
Tell us, Hermione, in what direction does the price of a declining commodity tend to move?
Hermiome
Really, you’re embarrassingly clueless about oil and gas. Jeez you are talking to people who work in the industry FGS. I would’t be so arrogant as to tell a brain surgeon I know better about brain surgery.
The entire world is somewhere around peak oil. Even the magical Norway. Oil’s not a reason for Scottish independence, Scotland’s £1.5 trillion+ reserves are simply an extra asset that the vast majority of countries don’t have. The fact that just about everyone that works in the industry supports independence (the NE is as noted, the home of the SNP) shows you the confidence in the industry. That and of course the 30 year investment high; it’s like the good old days of the 80’s all over again.
The Scottish government have never said anything other than this; that it is an asset, a useful one, but one which will decline long term so should not be relied on. Thus we should use the proceeds wisely, saving and investing them in Scotland’s future as much as possible.
It’s that or let Westminster continue to piss it all away like Tories do with money.
And given I work in the industry, why on earth would I need to prove anything too you? I’m quite happy with my knowledge. It’s you that seem to lack understanding hence are asking questions.
Scotland is going to leave the union anyway, so we’re just passing the time of day you and I.
Another of example doubleshite. The ability to express opposing opinions in support of a political goal (i.e. unionism).
Other examples include the the SNP are stuffed is a front “orange lodge” or undercover Opus Die operatives, depending on the audience.
Juteman
My new best friend couldn’t give us a link to the careers
site could you
scottish_skier
well its in the bag then eh
Albert Herring
‘I wonder, would the UK have built up an oil fund if the oil had been discovered in English waters?’
It was err! became English waters at a stroke of a Unionist quill pen
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS7SbNKyzaAU9d7vKWIs41U_BDORIyeJMmMXjKHLEy_aoc3O4gvjA
and the fund was used to keep the City of London afloat in Gold
Us Unionists what are we like.
Niko
well its in the bag then eh
If everyone who supports independence gets off there ass and goes to the polling both, yes, it should be.
It only needs maybe 31-32%+ yes for a majority, if we use 1979 and 1997 as examples. That’s the solid support low in polls (recent MORI was 34%) with long term average 42-43% and peaks over 50% Y.
You desperately need to get those ‘Och probably No’ voters who have never bothered ever voting in their lives off their armchairs, otherwise the union is screwed.
I suggest you keep telling them nobody supports independence; that should do the trick. Worked in 1979 and 1997 for devolution.
@Nikostratos
“and the fund was used to keep the City of London afloat in Gold
Us Unionists what are we like.” is the first credible thing you’ve said.
The only person here who suggests that we believe oil will fund independence is Hemoine. What I find deeply irritating is the continuous insult agenda.
It’s as if nobody works in Scotland , no companies exist in Scotland, no factories work in Scotland, no farmers farm in Scotland, no exporters export from Scotland and there is no tax collected in Scotland.
This stuff is the political attack of half-wits designed to confuse other half-wits. It will all roll over us and come to nought and as soon as the Scottish people realise they are being treated as idiots we are home and dry
So the unionists claim a newly independent Scotland getting 90% of the oil fields, would be responsible for the oil facilities clean up.
Then surely that would only be for those oil fields commissioned from the date of independence as Scotland could not inherit liabilities arising out of previously commissioned oil fields because Scotland was not in receipt of the oil tax revenues before that date (or at most received only a population share (9%) from Westminster)?
Also if the independent Scots government plays their cards right with the awarding of new licences for newly commissioned fields after independence.they can ensure the industry pays and not the taxpayers of Scotland, result = Scotland’s taxpayers don’t pay!
Fill yer boots Niko.
https://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&sugexp=les%3B&gs_rn=5&gs_ri=psy-ab&tok=NwK6ypVST7DRwPgMOO-ykw&cp=2&gs_id=6&xhr=t&q=cnc+machinist+jobs+scotland&es_nrs=true&pf=p&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&oq=cn&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.43148975,d.d2k&fp=c25e45b6675ac0af&biw=1280&bih=652
Sorry about the big link, i should have just said Google ‘CNC Machinist Jobs Scotland’.
Oil companies are responsible for decommissioning / clean up.
The industry was privatised in the UK after all. e.g.
…as with most developed countries that operate under concession-based regimes, the UK Government has ensured that oil companies are not only financially responsible for decommissioning of offshore installations but are also able to meet their obligations from environmental, social and technical perspectives…
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/cepmlp/gateway/files.php?file=cepmlp_car14_29_162450545.pdf
https://www.gov.uk/oil-and-gas-decommissioning-of-offshore-installations-and-pipelines
@Hermione.
”Facts are sheep which don’t go ping…”?
Jings! I’d dearly love to hear sheep go ‘ping’.
Perhaps if it were iron wool from an hydraulic ram?
Hermione lassie, I didnae ken whether tae laugh or greet.
Correctly it’s, ”But facts are cheils that winna ding.”
From ‘A Dream’ by Robert Burns. (author of ‘Such a Parcel o’ Rogues in a Nation’, which I heartily recommend that you read)
I suspect that Hermione is Nicos in a nice frock and comfortable shoes so smile at their little peccadillos and ignore. Anything other will only frighten the horses.
Hermione says:
2 March, 2013 at 5:40 pm
A glass from which production is now 62% down from its 1999 peak, and which is declining at around 9% a year on average.
Facts are sheep which don’t go ping, or whatever the saying is.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/crude-oil-and-petroleum-production-imports-and-exports-1890-to-2011
Hermione,
Interesting how you only concentrate on net exports rather than look at the market.
These are entirely two different beasts.
You cannot use net exports (peaked in 1999) as a measure of reserves or even potential production. Please refrain from using selective figures to prove a point that doesn’t exist.
I’m not an oil baron but I understand basic supply and demand and how it effects price movement.
In the period around 1998 / 1999 the price of oil fell to around $10 per barrel which was it’s lowest in a decade.
The simple way to push the price up again was to drop back global production and force the price up. That is why production from Scottish oil fell. This trend has continued for the last 10 years and will in all likelihood continue until the market corrects (it has to at some point as it can’t rise forever).
Less oil = higher price.
Do you follow?
It has absolutely nothing to do with oil running out. If this were true, their would be very little appetite to invest in a “White Elephant”. The opposite is currently happening. There is heavy investment happening in Scottish waters right now.
If you don’t understand what you are looking at then please don’t make a fool of yourself by making out that you do.
Aye, I bet she’s feeling sheepish noo. And here’s us getting fleeced. Bah!
I hate Maggie Thatcher.
What she did with this countries resources was a complete disgrace. We had a quango called ‘BNOC’ and it could have been the core of a Scandanavian wealth fund. It was based on St Vincent Street in Glasgow. It was sold off, via her stupidity, to the highest bidder.
Did I mention I hate Maggie Thatcher?
Right then, so no backup for the claim that UK oil production stats are wrong, and no acknowledgement that the claim about Scotland having more oil than Saudi is wrong by a factor of MORE THAN A HUNDRED.
No need for me to respond to anyone until my questions are answered, is there?
Night.
Oh I’ve just noticed this gem from “rabb”:
“The simple way to push the price up again was to drop back global production and force the price up. That is why production from Scottish oil fell.”
Er, “rabb”, the only oil producers who can choose how much they produce are the ones with surplus capacity like Saudi.
UK oil production fell because it COULD NOT PHYSICALLY PRODUCE ANY MORE.
Ask your friend “Scottish Skier” the oil expert. If I’m wrong, I’m sure I’ll be contradicted.
Hermiome,
You avoid my point at the peril of your arguement. Why, exactly, was UK gas and oil privatised in the first place?
You haven’t answered my question Hermione.
Are you a red Tory, or a blue Tory?
DC. Thatcher was just completely out of her depth. An utter failure as a PM. She was a weak character with very little understanding of the world around her. Was why the Tories chucked her in the end.
Her greatest achievement was destroying the UKoGB, literally, for it will end soon due to the legacy of her failings.
Thatcher will be remembered in history as the PM who brought an end to Britain.
Will go something like this.
As the empire declined, Thatcher led Britain down a neo-liberal path, following the economic policies of the disastrous US Reagan administration. This policy agenda was followed by subsequent UK governments under Blair and then Cameron, severely damaging the UK economy to an almost unrecoverable extent and ultimately bringing about the final demise of Britain; this being marked by Scotland voting to end the treaty of union in 2014.
Hermione’s away to teach her granny the art of egg-sucking.
Hemoine is quite correct. The UK government is drinking Scottish oil dry as quickly as it can and always has done so (unlike Norway whose government adopted a much more careful and sensible policy and took national share in all of its oil industry).
Thatcher’s governent took the opportunity oil revenues presented to face down troublesome industries and unions and kill off the “lame ducks” (as she described them, Germany instead fixed hers) and pay the unemployment benefits out of oil revenues.
At the moment the oil revenues are doing nothing for Scotland anyway as it is all being used to rescue the UK financial service industry on which the south relies. But a cursory examination of Scoyland’s economy (even without the oil) shows it to be a very considerably better balanced economy than the UK’s as a whole. Scotland has a considerable suprplus in energy production,has obviously a surplus in oil and gas (despite our households having to pay high prices because the UK is importing expensive Russian gas), has a huge surplus in water, exports more perhead than the UK does, more of less feeds itself, has a higher percentage of its working population in work than the UK. has a lower per capita social benefits bill than every region in the UK except the SE and provides a higher per capita tax take than every region but the SE.
The South of Engalnd on the other hand (over half of the UK’s population lives with 70 miles of London) is underproductive, overpopulated, hugely deficient in energy production, hugely deficient in water availablity, imports virtually all of its food and is hugely overpaid. The rest of us subsidise this region which determines what government we get. UK government have no choice but to save this area. We have no obligation to remain attached to it.
@scottish_skier –
Brilliant! That’s ready-made for Wikipedia.
Juteman,
Some of us would see it as a handy transfer from the poor to the rich. Err for Hermione’s favourite people, her betters, the rich.
I have no idea how Hermione justifies herself to a wider audience.
————————————————
“Maggie Thatcher,
Chuck her up and catch her,
Maggie Thatcher.
Squeeze her and she’s deid.”
Is a childrens song with a degree of justification in Scotland. And the wider UK. The song is about milk but it could be just about oil too. They have squandered half our inheritance, the likes of Hermione would have us squander the rest. That’s what you get from them.
Och leave Hermione alone.
The goal is to engage with the undecided.
Hermione is a right winger/Tory, thus 85%+ of Scots reading her posts distrust them for good reason.
If she had credentials in oil and gas, her views might carry some weight, but I doubt she can even tell me what comes out of hydrocarbon reservoir well.
I’ll accept the 4 main phases you might find hermione. Can you name them or are you clueless about the most basic, fundamental aspects of the industry?
scottish_skier,
I think Hermione is a Unionist beyond redemption.
Best of luck with that one!
Living in Aberdeenshire you get to know about the North sea oil situation, most people you talk to, and I include a senior member of UK oil and gas agree that the North sea is far from finished.
I am getting really peed off with all the “oh oil revenues are too volatile” pish from the unionist side. I am also totally indifferent to Prince whoever and his latest ski jaunt, all this free time they sem to have, I care not that the Queen has the trots, I do care about useless bankers having fek’d the economy being paid massive bonuses with the line ” if we dont pay them they will leave” they fek’d the economy they should have been sacked!! Rant over… 🙂
@ douglas clark
Thank you dc, I haven’t heard such a rousing rendition of the proclamation I will never tier of hearing. I was one of the ones that lost out on the milk.
“I hate Margret Thatcher, and so on and so on….”
You know that one of the stone shields in the Great Hall of Stirling Castle, has a portrait carved on it which bears an uncanny resemblance to the Wicked Witch. I’m pretty sure she is a supernatural being that has haunted humanity since the earliest of times. A true monster of the Id.
Hermione says:
2 March, 2013 at 9:06 pm
Oh I’ve just noticed this gem from “rabb”:
“The simple way to push the price up again was to drop back global production and force the price up. That is why production from Scottish oil fell.”
Er, “rabb”, the only oil producers who can choose how much they produce are the ones with surplus capacity like Saudi.
UK oil production fell because it COULD NOT PHYSICALLY PRODUCE ANY MORE.
Ask your friend “Scottish Skier” the oil expert. If I’m wrong, I’m sure I’ll be contradicted.
You really are narrow minded Hermione.
Guess what Scotland would be if it was independent?
That’s right, a net exporter of oil who can control directly how much it produces according to your logic 🙂
But let’s not kid ourselves. I won’t pretend that Scotland will be an oil funded utopia. It simply won’t be. Scotland will follow the market like everyone else in the world.
The same faces are pumping oil out of the ground all over the world. Call it a cartel if you like. If these movers & shakers decide that global production is to fall then fall it will regardless of where the oil well is.
Look at the bigger picture and not your blinkered London centric view of the world. Global production has fallen since your 1999 example. Not just in Scotland. That’s not necessarily indicitive that they don’t have enough to go around or can’t extract enough for demand.
Much as you hate to admit, Dave & Ed are quite happy for the price to rise as it helps fund their false position as a big hitter in the world.
The USA also benefit from this cosy arrangement.
As US dollars are required to buy oil, they get a free $ printing press and the Brucey bonus of running a deficit that would bring a tear to a glass eye in order to fund a military machine the world has never seen before.
You can’t argue that 2.6% of UK GDP in military spending is morally correct when even China only spends 2%
Are you happy with that figure?
The CONLIB government could put an end to it tomorrow and the last Labour government had 13 years to do it.
Fair society my arse!!
The whole charade is significantly (not fully) maintained with north sea resources.
If you can’t see where this is leading to then I despair deeply.
The UK was in financial stook when oil was discovered and it’s frivelous spending of it revenue since will condemn it to being a nation that will grab every last penny from all but the ruling class as it dies on it’s arse.
Mark my words, the ball is already well and truly rolling with Phillip Hammond’s comments today on protecting military spending.
I urge you to think long and hard about what you are standing for.
I may have come accross as being a tad cheeky with you but your clearly an intelligent person. There must be a part of you that can see the benefit of a Yes vote?
Please don’t feed the trolls. I can’t be assed reading the crap.
@ Rabb
With respect to oil and gas. To use an analogy, Hermione seems to think milk comes from supermarkets.
Hermione can’t even name the four main phases that come out of the ground when you dig a hole in the right place. Ergo, she’s way out of her depth just like George Osbourne. That idiot managed to mothball the largest gas field in England when he tried to hit the Scots industry with a tax grab. Real face palm stuff.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/centrica-blames-tax-for-morecambe-bay-closure-2291964.html
Robert Kerr says:
2 March, 2013 at 10:23 pm
Please don’t feed the trolls. I can’t be assed reading the crap.
Apologies mate but I really can’t let these people peddle the lies and half truths that they do un-challenged.
There are honest decent folk who are now starting to visit sites like this looking for information and they deserve the truth.
I will continue to do so until we secure a Yes vote.
Was on the train to Edinburgh this afternoon and a chap had a copy of the Telegraph with a front page story headed along the lines of “Scots could lose billions in oil revenue if independent”…
How can we LOSE part of something we dont actually get?
The true headline should be “Scots gain billions in oil revenue from independence”.
Rabb
You are correct but after an enjoyable night out it got to me.
I have worked all over the world in upstream oil and gas engineering and my son is at present working offshore in UKCS production.
One reason for downturn is the very poor state of the older platforms. What my son describes as “scrapheap challenge” Hence the serious investment planned now.
The other hidden agenda is to promote the Nuclear option for power generation.
Perfidious Albion still at it
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. For Pete’s sake, agree with them. Yup, the oil is worthless. Just a liability. So you won’t be wanting any part of it, will you?
Vronsky @ 10:19am,
Brilliant idea! We should also offset the additional risk we would be taking against any debt they want to encumber us with. Indeed, they should negotiate with us to take over the entire rUK sea bed, and, with our arms twisted up our backs, we should agree.
Hermione – i’d much prefer to believe the view of the oil companies who have frequently stated that there is as much oil to be recovered as has been taken already. Why do you think the companies I have quoted are drilling and reporting finding oil? It is also reported that the North Sea is heading for a boom. I know you don’t want any of this to happen but hey-ho you can’t always have it your own way!
The “Bill McLean person”!