An independent Scotland would pay proper attention to the interests of the nation’s oil and gas sector, a leading industry executive has said.
Hugh Fraser, an Aberdeen businessman based in Dubai for 10 years, insisted the position would be in stark contrast to the “disgraceful and destabilising treatment of the industry by successive Westminster governments”.
However, as he was making a stand for Scotland going it alone, a Scottish-based company that employs 3,500 people around the world was threatening to move its HQ elsewhere in the event of a Yes vote.
Alan Savage, chairman of the Orion Group, said he would live in an independent Scotland but uncertainty over currency, trade, tax and EU membership might force him to run the business from elsewhere.
The Inverness-based recruitment boss, former chairman of Inverness Caledonian Thistle football club, said the Scottish Government’s white paper on independence had failed to give firms assurances on the issues.
Yesterday, Mr Fraser, a managing partner of Andrews Kurth (Middle East), said: “The referendum is a major reference point for business and it’s right for supporters from both camps to speak out and to debate the issues.
“What matters most is not the constitutional framework but rather the policy environment therein. In this respect, it strikes me that Scotland is more incentivised than the UK to support its leading industry.” Mr Fraser, a member of pro-independence group Business for Scotland, said the country should have benefited from the discovery of oil by investing the dividends in a sovereign wealth fund for future generations, as Dubai and Norway have done.
He added: “Westminster has squandered nearly half of the people’s oil and gas wealth. Scotland has nothing to show for it but mountains of UK debt.
“But over half the value is still to flow. Scots must not allow the remaining reserves of this natural and finite resource to be squandered. Put simply, I believe the referendum is the opportunity of our time.”
Mr Savage said: “Uncertainty is a nightmare for anyone running a business today. My company, run out of Scotland with 1,500 workers across the UK and 3,500 globally, needs economic and political stability to keep it healthy.
“We need certainty on a wide range of business-crucial areas, including embassies, trade, tax and membership of the EU. Being part of the UK has given Scottish-headquartered companies like Orion certainty on these issues.
“The Scottish Government’s white-paper wish list for independence doesn’t give business any assurances on these must-dos.
“But for me the biggest uncertainty of all in Mr Salmond’s separation experiment is on the vitally important issue of currency. However, Alex Salmond’s point-blank refusal to set out a currency plan B, as well as his reckless threat to default on our debt if he doesn’t get his eurozone-style currency union, means that I have to come up with a plan B of my own.
“This would involve still living in Scotland, but running the business from somewhere else.”
BP chief Bob Dudley also spoke out last week about “uncertainties” if Scotland voted for independence.
His concerns were echoed by Colin Welsh, chief executive officer of investment banking specialist Simmons and Co International.