Energy in History

"It’s Scotland’s oil"

North Sea oil was overwhelmingly concentrated in Scottish waters and its discovery piqued the interests of the Scottish National Party which had recently begun to make a political breakthrough.

During the early 1970s, the slogan 'It’s Scotland's Oil' made a major contribution to the SNP's rise as they won 11 seats and over a third of the popular vote in Scotland at the October 1974 general election. 

Campaigners' voices

Isobel Lindsay, former SNP Parliamentary candidate and Vice Chair. Interviewed in 2021. 

"The first time I actually heard of there being oil it was in the autumn '71 it was the Stirling and Falkirk by-election and I think it was in September, and it was just in the course of that by-election that I heard on a BBC Scotland report that oh, there appears to be oil discovered, oil exploration in Scottish waters and it appears to be positive, et cetera, et cetera. And I remember saying to someone then, what a pity we hadn’t really picked this up before the by-election and been able to make an issue of it. But it meant that after that, we did realise that this was potentially a very significant issue."

"I certainly realised how important oil was because it provided a short answer. Not because it provided the most important answer, but a short answer on the economic side. Because the big thing we had been hit with time and time again in the late '60s was, you cannae afford it.  It was, Scotland is too poor.  And, of course, this was something that was widely accepted by the electorate because they kind of felt that, that we were poorer, you know. That our wages were lower and so on. And the thing that oil gave us that we could see is the short answer, the simple answer. Not the most important one but the simplest one. And that’s why we realised it was so important and we had to build this up as an issue." 

"Without independence for the Scottish nation, the bulk of oil-based benefits will pass Scotland by and that Scotland's share of the wealth produced will provide only a temporary diversion from the general pattern of decline."

Nick Dekker, The Rea£ity of Scotland’s Oil (SNP, 1973) 

"Countries around the short of the North Sea now have great new source of wealth to improve their living standards and their future prospects. It’s like winning the pools or inheriting a fortune. All of a sudden a whole new way of life becomes possible. … Scotland’s financial fitness to govern herself can no longer be denied our doubt, but unless we govern ourselves we will never draw new strength from this resources."

Scottish National Party Broadcast, 16 May 1972, presented by Jimmy Halliday. Papers of James Halliday (13417), file 14, Broadcasts. National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.