Energy Minister Fergus Ewing has admitted that no new money was being provided to fund a new body designed to bring security to the oil and gas industry.
He said public sector partners and agencies would support the activities of the Energy Jobs Taskforce using existing budgets.
The group was established by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon last month to examine ways of mitigating the impact of the falling oil price on the industry.
Members include Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Scottish Government, Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire councils, Oil and Gas UK, the Wood Group, Grampian and Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce and BP.
Mr Ewing said the taskforce met for the first time on January 28 in Aberdeen and “identified a range of actions to be taken forward to mitigate the impact of job losses within the sector”.
“Public sector partners and agencies will support activity from within their existing budgets,” he added.
North-east Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald said he was not impressed with the admission.
He claimed the Scottish Government had no interest in taking up issues such as the lay up of offshore supply vessels or backlogs in offshore maintenance with the relevant UK authorities.
Mr Macdonald said: “The SNP need to go beyond talking tax, and address the issues which affect the oil and gas workforce which they can actually do something about.”