Aberdeen South By-Election Focuses on North Sea Oil and Gas Policy

Kemi Badenoch launched the Conservative campaign for the Aberdeen South by-election near the city's south harbour, where oil rigs are serviced. She said voters could treat the contest as a referendum on the future of the North Sea oil and gas industry and accused the Labour government of blocking new drilling with SNP support.

The by-election was triggered after Stephen Flynn, the SNP's former Westminster leader, was elected to the Scottish parliament. Regulations prevent him from holding seats in both bodies.

Sea discoveries in the late 1960s and early 1970s made Aberdeen the oil capital of Europe. At its peak the sector supported almost half a million jobs and added more than £35 billion a year to the UK economy. Current figures from Offshore Energy UK show 84,000 jobs in Scotland's oil and gas industry, with roughly 1,000 positions lost each month.

Annual contribution has fallen to about £14 billion. Aberdeen city council projects 12,500 renewable-energy jobs in the city by 2030. GB Energy, launched by the government in Aberdeen last year, has created 13 positions locally compared with 31 in London.

Tuesday the Department for Business and Trade issued temporary licences allowing imports of Russian jet fuel and diesel refined in third countries. The move followed Iran's restrictions on tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Badenoch said the licences eased sanctions on Russian oil and gas.

Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Union's economic commissioner, said the policy came as a surprise and that now was not the time to roll back sanctions. Chris Bryant, the minister for trade, told MPs the government had handled the matter clumsily and was trying to strengthen sanctions, not weaken them.

A Royal United Services Institute report estimated that if the UK imports the same volumes of these fuels as in 2025, the trade could reach $1.4 billion by year-end.

At a Union Street pub, two retirees who lived through Aberdeen's earlier boom said they were disgusted by the decision to import Russian fuel rather than increase North Sea production. One said he planned to vote for Reform UK in the by-election. Richard Thomson, the SNP candidate and former MP for Gordon, said oil and gas remained the key issue because much of the city's prosperity depends on the sector.

He added that new licences should be issued if they meet existing UK climate-change law and support energy security. At the last general election the SNP won Aberdeen South with a majority of almost 4,000 votes. In this month's Holyrood elections the SNP took four of the five Aberdeen seats and the Conservatives took one.