February 23, 2026 [Energy Voice]- Aberdeen and its surrounds has been powering the UK’s energy supply chain for decades although the decline of the North Sea has been taking a huge toll on the region’s companies and the workforce it employs.

With fears that UK government policy is accelerating this decline before contracts for clean energy work get signed is a huge cause for worry.

Energy Voice convened a panel of some of the supply chain’s key players, including Hydrasun, D2Zero, Port of Aberdeen and National Gas to offer their insights and the issues they face as they grapple with the challenges in the north east of Scotland, across the UK and into global markets.

Frustration with the UK government and energy policy roller coasters was a key theme.

Neil Thompson, CEO, Hydrasun called for policy clarity: “With change in prime ministers on an annual basis, we’re changing energy ministers all of the time, it’s no wonder we don’t have a stable policy environment from an energy perspective.”

He said the energy industry has been united like it never has been before, across the supply chain, the operators, the trade unions. He called for the industry to aim their voice direct to citizens.

“I think we’ve got to talk over the heads of the politicians to the public.

“We need to look at other institutions and connect with the British public as much as we can to get the message home through to them into their constituencies, to get the message home in terms of how it’s damage in jobs, how it’s damaging their own income, how it’s destroying tax revenue that pays for hospitals, pays for schools and everything that we need to defend this country.”

Roddy James, chief commercial officer, Port of Aberdeen, said the port was a barometer for the industry.

“There’s a tipping point coming.

“We’re getting quizzed over some minute things now which are about jobs, which are about the supply chain, which are coming directly from government now, which we haven’t had in the past.”

He joked that maybe firms should get “militant” but was clear they need to keep pressure on policy makers to understand the issues. “I think all of us need to make sure we have their voices out there.

“We do get a lot of visits, but it’s probably not from the right people. I don’t think we’re seeing the people actually make decisions – when was Mr Miliband last in Aberdeen?

“I think if we had this conversation three years ago, we’d be talking about the oil industry versus the renewables industry. And I think that’s the one change that we’ve seen is they come together now and talk about energy. And it’s it’s probably only in the last year where we’ve seen that really tighten up. And I think that’s how we get stronger.”

David Marshall, regional director for Scotland and the North of England, National Gas highlighted the opportunity for the offshore energy supply chain to come back on show as it invests £15 billion its distribution network.

The firm is operator of the UK’s National Transmission System gas and is also behind Project Union hydrogen network and SCO₂T Connect carbon pipeline to the St Fergus CCS project.

Marshall, who has made his own career transition from upstream and midstream positions at EnQuest and BP to the gas network owner was bullish. “From a gas transmission perspective, I think there’s a real opportunity for the supply chain to diversify into different areas, gas transmission being one of them. And as I said, we’ve got a big work book over the next five years of activity, where those skills are very complementary.”

Jeff Corray, head of energy private equity at Piper Sandler and chief financial officer at D2Zero shared some of his insights from his near 40 years of experience leading investments in the UK energy sector. He admitted: “I’ve never seen it this bad. But I think where this, where there’s, difficulty, there’s opportunity.

“Consolidation is definitely an opportunity. Diversification is an opportunity because what do investors really look for? You look for quality management teams who can drive the business into growth because it’s all about growth. They can generate good returns from that growth.”

The downturn in oil and gas and the slow progress in other sectors means in investment cycles are now facing long delays, including in transitional energy projects.

“Energy transition hasn’t gone away. Energy transition is just… pausing in certain places.”

He added: “We don’t have a clear enough industrial strategy. And from industrial strategy will come energy strategy.”

Hydrasun, which sponsored Energy Voice Live: Powering up the UK energy supply chain event, is a key supply chain player. Working in a range of energy sectors its operations span from the UK, Europe and the Caspian and exports goods and services to over 65 countries around the world.

From this perspective, he sees that other areas are much more active for energy investment than the UK is currently.

Thompson said: “There is a decoupling in oil and gas at the moment in terms of what’s happening in the North Sea sector and in the UK versus other sectors around the world, and we’ve never seen that before.”

He said Norway and West Africa and Brazil show where countries are powering ahead which means its global customers are also pursuing opportunities in clean energy sectors such as hydrogen

“Hydrosun is a bellwether for the industry. We’re the first to come down if spend comes off and was the first to come back when spend comes back.

“As a business, it is challenging, but we see opportunities. Unfortunately, a lot of those opportunities are out with the UK and that has implications for jobs. It has implications for the UK economy.

Marshall set out National Gas priorities, focusing on its “three molecule strategy”: methane – natural gas or biogas; hydrogen; and CO2 in the form of CCS.

Marshall said “a lot of what we do is it’s very similar to what the activities that are happening offshore are. So we’ve got gas compressors, we’ve got pipes, we’ve got valves. All those type of skill sets are transferable.

“We we see gas being around in the energy mix for decades to come. And I think that we need to look at how we decarbonise and how we decarbonise those end users. And that very much fits into the hydrogen projects that we’re looking at, where hydrogen would be a substitute for those hard to decarbonize industries, and CCS.”

Corray added: “Wherever I go, people talk about the North Sea experience and it’s always disappointed me that we’ve never really capitalised on this. I think Aberdeen is a centre of excellence.

“We should use the funds that we create from the North Sea to actually develop our diversification strategies into other markets. And that’s what we are doing. So it’s very simple – we have fantastic skill set in Aberdeen, diversification into other sectors where we can use that skill sets, grow oil and gas as much as we can to use that as the fund to make that transition, because it is what it’s all about. And we need energy to power this country and the world.”

James noted the Port of Aberdeen is one of the UK’s oldest businesses with operations stretching back 900 years which gives the operation perspective on industrial change. A decision taken in 2012 to invest up to £420m to build the south harbour confirmed it as a port of call for connections with over 40 countries as well as paved the way for diversification into decommissioning, renewables, cruise ships and eventually cargo.

“If you look at the history of the port, 60 years ago, there was no oil and gas, it was all about fishing. Prior to that, it was shipbuilding or it was textiles or it was farms,” he said.

“So it’s a natural thing over the history of an area that you will get into different industries. And what we see is it’s not about transitioning now. It’s a restructuring. So you’re restructuring how you can get business and where it comes from. And we’re trying to use all the assets that support us to be able to do that.”

Hydrogen future

Thompson notes that the bubble of expectation in hydrogen has “burst” as government policy changes. He pointed to a “change in stance” in government support away from decarbonising the whisky production sector, which saw investors including ScottishPower withdraw from a project in the Cromarty Firth despite having secured backing in the government’s first hydrogen allocation round (HAR1).

“That changing policy landscape really deters investment. So that’s a huge challenge for the sector.”

He added: “There’s no question that the market scale is not what it was forecast to be if you go back 3 or 4 years ago.”

“I think one of the benefits of the market changing is that the with the bubble, if you like, bursting, that what projects are more likely to come to fruition are realistic.

“And I think from a supply chain point of view, the real challenge in hydrogen, certainly up until now, is the amount of effort you put in to then find that the project actually doesn’t go ahead. So it’s difficult enough to win a project. Anybody in the supply chain knows that. But then to put that effort in and then the project doesn’t go ahead, the cost of opportunity acquisition becomes untenable.”