Alistair Darling MP, chair of the Better Together Campaign, and Fergus Ewing MSP, Scottish energy minister and speaker for Yes Scotland, are making their cases to 200 industry guests at the event organized by UK trade body, Oil & Gas UK (OGUK).
The pressure on Darling, former UK chancellor of the exchequer, will be intense following a lacklustre performance in a televised debate with Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond on 25 August, after which his No (to independence) campaign suffered an eight-point drop, according to one poll.

Recent polls have suggested that 53% of voters now support the No campaign, with 47% supporting a Yes vote, a change from 57% supporting No versus 43% supporting Yes in mid-August.

The UK’s huge decommissioning bill has played a key role in the debates so far. Last August the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) announced a surprise policy shift, promising that an independent Scotland would match the UK’s commitment to offer £20bn in tax relief to help with the cost of decommissioning.

In advance of today’s debate Darling said: “The broad shoulders of the UK mean we are better placed to maximise what is left in the North Sea, spreading the cost across an economy of more than 63 million people in the UK rather than just five million in Scotland.”

But the SNP’s Yes campaign appears to be gaining ground with the argument that the UK government has mismanaged the industry, and that Scotland would do a better job.

“Independence offers Scotland’s oil and gas industry a huge opportunity to end the instability of the oil and gas fiscal regime, which has unfortunately become a hallmark of the UK’s mismanagement,” said Fergus Ewing, citing as examples the 2011 supplementary charge and this year’s unexpected introduction of the change to the bareboat charter tax rules.

OGUK says it maintains a neutral stance on Scottish independence.