Rig worker urges Farage to ‘shine a light’ on oil decline – Daily Business

As Nigel Farage heads to Aberdeen today, an oil and gas worker who has become “part of the mass exodus” from the North Sea has urged him to “shine a light” on the industry’s decline.

Simon Aughton, who was working as a hydraulic mechanic at Noble Drilling, has written to Mr Farage saying he and his colleagues see the Reform UK leader as “the voice of hard working people in this country who have been forgotten by the establishment.”

Mr Aughton says he was working on a rig at the Ben Lawers oilfield where operations have come to a halt.

“My rig, like many others, is being sent to Norway – either to wait for work or to drill there instead, employing non-UK citizens. Meanwhile, the UK is choosing to abandon its own energy resources.”

Mr Aughton adds: “The Labour government has already devastated British farming – now they are turning their backs on oil and gas. Entire industries are being left to collapse. It’s heartbreaking.”

He says that many of 130 who worked on his rig have spent more than 25 years in the industry. “We want to work, but our own government is making that impossible.

“There’s oil under our feet, skilled hands to extract it, and infrastructure already in place. But there’s no political will to support us.”

He urges Mr Farage to “speak out about what is happening in the west of Shetland and the North Sea.

“This is more than a jobs issue – it’s about national energy security, industrial sovereignty, and the future of thousands of working class families.

“Reform UK is the only party that speaks common sense. You have our support, and we hope you will use your platform to shine a light on what’s really happening behind the scenes.”

His letter, posted on LinkedIn, received hundreds of responses, many backing his support for Reform UK.

“Brilliant Simon, Keir Starmer single-handedly destroying this country and the working class people in it,” said one. Another responded: “He speaks for quite a lot of us! There’s a lot of drilling personnel out of work in the near future due to this idiot in power.”

However, one said: “If you think the multimillionaire public school boy grifter in chief is on your side you’re sadly deluded.”

The SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn insists it is Mr Farage who presents the biggest danger to the north east.

Mr Farage has said he would end carbon funding which would see the North East Acorn project scrapped along with the thousands of jobs that come with it.

The Reform UK leader believes carbon capture is an “ideological gamble” and previously described net-zero investment, which is set to drive thousands of jobs in Aberdeen and Scotland, as “lunacy”.

Mr Flynn said: “Farage’s ideological plans put that future at risk – his refusal to back the Acorn Project would starve our city and region of thousands of jobs and billions of pounds in investment, and that’s before we even begin to contemplate the impact of scrapping the various floating offshore wind projects that lie just off our coastline.

“It’s the sort of short-sighted stupidity you would expect from the man who delivered Brexit and we shouldn’t let him do to Aberdeen what he has done to the UK economy.”

Energy strategy plea

Trade group Offshore Energies UK has today published a plan calling for industry and government to develop a national energy strategy that places home-produced energy at its core. 

With the UK Government currently consulting on a new industrial strategy, OEUK says the success of any such plan hinges on one critical factor: energy.  

The document puts homegrown energy at the top of seven actions it says it can take with government to realise its vision for a modern industrial Britain.  

Currently, nearly 40% of the UK’s energy is imported, and domestic energy prices are the highest among G7 nations. 

OEUK chief executive David Whitehouse said:   “If we want to build world-leading products, grow British business, and create thousands of high-quality jobs across the UK, then we must put homegrown energy at the heart of the nation’s economic, security and climate ambitions. 

“Decarbonisation must not mean deindustrialisation. Output in our energy intensive industries is at a 35-year low, yet our North Sea has the capability to provide all the energy it needs now and in future. In a world where we should be protecting our sovereign capabilities, that is not good enough.”