OFFSHORE Oil and gas workers’ views on industry conditions and the energy transition Platform is an environmental and social justice collective based in London with campaigns focused on the global oil industry, fossil fuel finance and building capacity toward climate justice and energy democracy. Platform’s Just Transition campaign seeks a well-managed, worker-led phase-out of oil and gas production in the North Sea. The campaign is focused on increasing worker consultation and power over policy decisions related to an oil and gas phase-out. Friends of the Earth Scotland (FoES) campaigns for socially just solutions to environmental problems and to create a green economy; for a world where everyone can enjoy a healthy environment and a fair share of the earth’s resources. Climate change is the greatest threat to this aim, which is why FoES is calling for a just transition to a 100% renewable Scotland through a well-managed phase-out of oil and gas production in the UK. Greenpeace stands for positive change through action to defend the natural world and promote peace. Greenpeace investigates, documents and exposes the causes of environmental destruction. A just transition is essential to move to an environmentally sustainable economy without leaving workers in polluting industries behind. This survey and report was conducted and written by Gabrielle Jeliazkov, Platform, Ryan Morrison, FoES, and Mel Evans, Greenpeace. Thank you to all the offshore workers who gave their thoughts and time to this project. ACRONYMS BEIS Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy CBA Collective Bargaining Agreement GWO Global Wind Organisation HSE Health and Safety Executive JTC Just Transition Commission NCS Norwegian Continental Shelf OCG Offshore Coordinating Group OGA Oil and Gas Authority OGTC Oil and Gas Technology Centre OGUK Oil and Gas UK OILC Offshore Industry Liaison Committee OPEC Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries OPEC+ 14 members of OPEC and 10 other non-OPEC members, including Russia RMT-OILC Rail, Maritime and Transport Union Offshore Industry Liaison Committee STUC Scottish Trades Union Congress TUC Trades Union Congress UKCS United Kingdom Continental Shelf View of the Equinor-operated Statfjord A platform in the North Sea Statfjord oil field © Marten van Dijl / Greenpeace 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword 5 Executive summary 6 SECTION 1: WHY CONSULT WORKERS? 8 1.1 There is no just transition without workers’ voices at the core 8 1.2 Methodology & survey respondents overview 9 1.3 A changing industry: a brief outline of fifty years of North Sea oil 11 SECTION 2: LIFE IN THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY 13 2.1. Oil price wars, Covid-19 and oil and gas in 2020 13 2.2 Government support 14 2.3 Health and Safety 16 2.4 Working conditions 17 2.5 Demand of the workforce: A jobs guarantee 18 SECTION 3: WILLINGNESS TO TRANSITION 20 3.1 Offshore workers have a huge appetite for something different 20 3.2 Mirroring the concerns with current roles in the oil and gas industry 21 3.3 Which sectors would you prefer to move to? 22 3.4 Re-imagining government support 24 SECTION 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CALL TO ACTION 27 4.1 Recommendations 27 4.2 Call to action 28 TABLE OF 3 Workers controlling rotor blades at a windfarm in Brandenburg © Paul Langrock / Greenpeace 4 TABLE OF FOREWORD From the first gas to come of the global pandemic and the end in oil and gas. This report shares ashore in late 1966 to the of government support schemes take the results of a survey and the first drop of oil on 18th July their effect.6 The consequences of testimonies of workers in the industry 1975, it took just seventeen Covid-19 on oil and gas, intertwined on the impacts of Covid-19, the oil years for the UK to become the initially with another global price price crash and their perspectives war triggered by disagreement over and priorities in the looming energy world’s fifth largest oil and gas 1 production limits between Russia and transition. producer, in large part due to Saudi Arabia,7 have been profound. The significant government support price of a barrel of Brent8 collapsed to Energy systems help to shape our 2 and subsidies. $19.71 on the 21st April 2020, with economic and political structures. the price of US oil turning negative As we inevitably change our energy For years the industry was dominated for the first time in history on the system in the face of climate change, by oil majors3 – some of the richest same day.9 The temporary end of the our economic and political systems companies on Earth. Now, the holdings Organisation of Petroleum Exporting must change too. An energy future have diversified, expanding to include Countries (OPEC)10 production limits grounded in democracy can create smaller oil companies like Ineos, state and the collapsed oil demand due to the potential for more just outcomes companies like the China National global shut-ins and closures because across society. A well-managed Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and of Covid-19 led energy analysts to energy transformation can meet UK private equity backed companies such indicate that this dramatic turn of climate commitments while protecting as Chrysaor.4 events would speed up the emergent livelihoods and economic wellbeing – energy transition.11 provided that the right environmental What remains constant is corporations and social policies are adopted and that in the North Sea operating out of the This upheaval has coincided with an the affected workers, trade unions and public eye and being governed by the accelerating climate emergency and communities are able to guide policies. boom and bust cycles of the global public clamour for action, bringing fossil fuel industry. We frequently mounting pressure on the fossil fuel speak about oil and gas in terms of industry – one of the most polluting profits, taxation, regulation, pollution, globally – to be wound down. In extraction, but what about the workers 2018, the UN’s climate scientists, the who handle the levers of production; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate who have worked through decades Change (IPCC), released a report of the sometimes monotonous and revealing the devastation of a world oftentimes turbulent life offshore? that breaches 1.5°C of warming.12 Across the world, renewable energy Work in the North Sea has always been generation is rising13 – a trend which precarious for a number of reasons, can be expected to continue as the including a lack of government impacts of climate change sharpen regulation, the challenges of collective focus on reducing the use of fossil organising offshore, share prices fuels. plummeting and the altered balance of risks and rewards from a mature oil Given this increasingly frequent basin.5 In 2014, oil and gas workers volatility, the ever-growing maturity found themselves in a downturn of the UK’s fossil fuel reserves and the THIS REPORT caused by the global oil market. heightened focus on oil and gas as a Amongst the storms of the North central climate issue, the North Sea has shares the results Sea, workers were made to weather become a clear battle ground for all of a survey and the decreases in pay rates, huge cuts in engaged in conversations about energy testimonies of workers their numbers and a change in shift transition. But what does this mean for patterns to spend an extra five weeks oil and gas workers? in the industry on the a year offshore for the same pay. impacts of Covid-19, Platform, Friends of the Earth Scotland the oil price crash and 2020 has brought its own challenges, and Greenpeace are committed to a with unemployment across the UK worker-led just transition and have their perspectives and expected to reach 2.5m by the end come together to create a means to priorities in the looming of the year as the economic impacts hear from and talk to those working energy transition. FOREWORD 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report is based on The survey results show that morale These responses indicate that workers the findings of a survey of is low amongst the workforce, who feel neglected and unheard – in the offshore oil and gas workers feel they are bearing the brunt of an past and in the context of the current industry in decline. But these workers crisis. Mismanagement is widespread conducted by Platform, Friends are willing to retrain and move to new across the industry, with a lack of of the Earth Scotland and sectors. They are open to change and government regulation resulting in Greenpeace. job security is their biggest concern. decommissioning and manufacturing They want secure and well-paid work contracts being lost overseas, training that makes use of their skills and costs being borne by the workforce experience. and exploitative certification regimes. 1,383 offshore workers responded The survey findings also demonstrate to the survey, representing 4.5% of that workers in the oil and gas sector the workforce. Platform, Friends of are well-informed and keen to express the Earth Scotland and Greenpeace their views on conditions within the also spoke with a smaller group about industry and how to build a future their personal stories, their views run on renewable energy, but their on the oil and gas industry and their knowledge and expertise is untapped. needs related to skills and retraining There is evidently a lot of interest opportunities. Eight case studies are in renewables and offshore wind included in this report, telling workers’ in particular, which aligns with the experiences in their own words. closest overlap in skills between the industries.14 Yet despite attempts by The key survey results show: individual workers to transition, the conditions present multiple challenges, 42.8% of oil and gas workers many of which could be overcome have been made redundant or through industry regulation and furloughed since March 2020.