Oil well?

F Mackintosh (Letters, 1 April) states that the North Sea oil business “is not booming”, with fields “becoming increasingly more difficult to extract the reserves from”.

This is not the view of UK Prime Minister David Cameron. Visiting Aberdeen on 14 October, 2011, for a £4.5 billion Shell Group investment in four giant St Clair Field projects, west of Shetland, he said: “It shows the confidence there is to invest in the North Sea.

“The oil and gas industry is not only important for our energy security, but is a major source of jobs and is vital for future economic growth. There is still massive opportunity in the North Sea.”

On that same occasion, the press reported Shell’s chief executive as making it clear that there should be plenty of money to be made in UK waters for decades – even at the higher tax rate.

On Shell’s investment, he  stated: “We are working on projects that will take production on some of our bigger fields out towards 2050.”

Since then there have been  investments of £12bn, £13bn and £14bn annually in the North Sea. Average North Sea workers’ wages are now set to leap from £60,000 a year to more than £70,000, due to rocketing  demand for labour.

So what is actually occurring in the North Sea – a depression?

Tom Johnston

Cumbernauld