Scotland's marine economic statistics 2016

5. Oil and gas services

5.1 Introduction

This section refers to the services that support the extraction of oil and gas. Estimates for oil and gas extraction are not presented here to remain consistent with UK extra regio (offshore) activity in National Accounts Statistics. The support activities are largely exploration and test drilling, but also look ahead to oil and gas decommissioning, where there is substantial potential for economic growth. Oil and gas support activities are the largest contributors of turnover and GVA to the marine economy.

The SABS categories used to provide the information in this section have changed in recent years. Since 2011, support services for oil and gas were extracted using the SIC code ‘09.1: Support activities for petroleum and natural gas extraction’. However, between 2008 and 2010 these figures were disclosive and so the wider code SIC ‘09 Mining support activities’ was used to provide data. The difference between statistics using the different SIC codes is insignificant, but it is important to note the change in coverage of the industry. For further analysis of the change see Annex B: Methodology and source data.

For ease of reading the category ‘Support activities for petroleum and natural gas extraction’ is referred to in this report as ‘Oil and gas services’.

5.2 Key economic points

In 2016 oil and gas services generated £1.6 billion GVA accounting for 1.24 % of the overall Scottish economy, and 42 % of the marine economy.

In terms of employment, oil and gas services provided employment for a headcount of 19,700 people, contributing 0.8 % to total Scottish employment, and 26 % of the marine economy employment.

5.3 Oil and gas services - trends

Between 2008 and 2016 oil and gas services GVA (adjusted to 2016 prices) halved while employment increased by almost 20%. Between 2015 and 2016 turnover and GVA dropped by a third.

Table 9 : Oil and gas services - GVA, turnover, employment and GVA per head, 2008 to 2016 (2016 prices)

*SABS categories changed between 2010 and 2011. See introduction to this section and the Methodology.

Figure 7: Oil and gas services – GVA and employment, Scotland, 2008 to 2016 (2016 prices)

*SABS categories for oil and gas services changed between 2010 and 2011. See introduction to this section and the Methodology.

While the GVA contribution provided by the oil and gas support activities has been declining, employment has not been falling at the same rate.

Geographic breakdown of oil and gas services are not readily available.