‘Extremely doubtful’ SNP’s plans to bankroll Scotland with oil and gas production in the North Sea will be successful
Nicola Sturgeon’s plan to kickstart the economy of an independent Scotland through North Sea oil and gas revenues has been rubbished by a world-leading economist behind Norway’s £1 trillion oil fund.
In her keynote speech at the SNP conference earlier this month, The First Minister said a £20 billion fund would be created within the first 10 years of independence to keep the country’s economy afloat.
The “Building a New Scotland Fund” would be bankrolled by North Sea revenues, Scottish Government borrowing and other “windfall income”, the SNP leader has said.
However, Tony Mackay, an Inverness-based economist who first proposed establishing a wealth fund with Norway’s oil and gas revenues alongside economist Terje Lind in the early seventies, told the Sunday Times it was “extremely doubtful” there would be enough oil and gas production in the North Sea to finance the fund.