A Historiography of the Impact of North Sea Oil on Northern Scotland

Abstract

What has been the effect of the oil industry on northern Scotland over the last four decades? The answer depends partly on viewpoint and the balance of views has shifted over time. This article seeks to provide a historiography, a history of the history, of the effects of North Sea oil on the economy and society of northern Scotland. It makes many references to developments offshore but the main focus is upon onshore impacts. We contend that there has been a dominant perspective on the impact of oil, consisting of accounts by, or sympathetic to, the oil industry but that from the very beginning there have also been competing labour, local community and other perspectives, sceptical of or strongly critical of the impact of oil. The dominant viewpoint sees the oil industry as the saviour of areas of northern Scotland, which, in the 1970s, were blighted by the lack of jobs and by depopulation. It emphasises the technological challenge of exploring for oil in very difficult physical conditions. It sees the overcoming of that challenge as a great triumph and the oil companies and oil workers as modern industrial heroes. When problems are acknowledged, they are usually viewed as minor debits when compared to the magnitude of the additional income and employment brought to northern Scotland. The more critical viewpoint acknowledges considerable benefits from oil, particularly in economic terms, but questions the price paid for those benefits, in social and environmental terms and in terms of human life. The role of the oil companies is seen very differently in terms of wresting away control over the livelihood and future of local communities, the appropriation of substantial profits from the North Sea and the dominance of a hire-and-fire, cowboy mentality. In this article, writing about the impact of oil is categorised according to four periods: up to and including 1975; 1976-1985 inclusive; 1986-1995 inclusive; and 1996 to the present day. In terms of the impact of oil, these four periods corresponded with the establishment of the oil industry, the phase of fastest growth, retrenchment, and a period of maturity. Discussion of each of the four periods covers accounts of contemporary developments but analysis of all bar the first period also includes reassessments of events in earlier periods. The impact of oil is analysed according to economic, social and environmental issues. We argue that while a viewpoint favourable to the impact of oil on northern Scotland has dominated, the volume of competing voices has been considerable at various times, particularly at the beginning of oil developments and in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Most of the contributions we have discussed are articles or books