Half North Sea oil remains, claims Energy Minister

There are half of the reserves of North Sea oil and gas yet to be extracted, it has been claimed.

Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said that the amount left was beyond doubt, adding that the oil industry is the key to the Scottish bid for independence.

"Unlike in the 80s when oil was barely more than ten dollars a barrel it is now far more than that," he explained to an SNP conference in Inverness.

"And therefore, we have an asset which everybody knows in Scotland will drive us forward to independence."

His comments contrasted with recent findings in a report by industry body Oil & Gas UK.

The report claimed that the reserves remaining could be as limited as 14 billion barrels, a figure which would imply that Scotland has already collected 75 per cent of its total reserves.

It said that while up to 30 billion barrels could remain in total, they would require radical technical developments to extract.