UK Business Information / Energies - Oil,Gas & Coal

SCOTLAND

Oil and gas are Scotland's largest export industries. Its academic sector, substantial skills base, and some of Europe's most advantageous energy resources, have attracted global businesses to Scotland.

75 out of the 500 exploration rigs in the world are in the North Sea and approximately 920 million tonnes of recoverable crude oil remain in North Sea oil fields. As a number of the world's unexplored oil fields are under extremely deep water, Scotland's expertise in subsea technology will expand as a necessity. 

Scotland has a number of R&D institutions focused on the energy industry. All of these institutions maintain good links with the global firms operating in Scotland.

See links below: 

Oil and Gas Centre at Aberdeen University

Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law at Dundee University

Institute of petroleum Engineering at Heriot Watt

Scotland Development International runs a fund to help drive innovation in the country's energy sector. Over 20 companies have benefited from the Proof of Concept fund.

FURTHER INFORMATION

- the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform's (BERR) breakdown of the oil, gas and coal sector in the UK. Also

- the Department of Business Innovation and Skills' (BIS) white paper about 'cleaner coal'.