OIL EXECUTIVES are being forced to rely on handouts from food banks as Aberdeen bears the brunt of the collapse in prices, charities have revealed.

More than 65,000 jobs in the North Sea have been lost since the oil price collapsed from a high of $115 a barrel in 2014 to less than $30.

And Aberdeen, the oil capital of Europe, is hurting.

Despite Chancellor George Osborne cutting North Sea tax in last month’s budget and the signing in January of a £500million “city deal”, there was a sense of ­trepidation about the future when we met voters, campaigners and ­politicians as the Holyrood election ­campaign moved up a gear.

We spoke to Dave Simmers, chief executive of Community Food Initiatives North East, who told us the number of food ­parcels given to families in need had trebled in three years.

He said: “Over the past nine months, we have seen a new group of people coming in – casualties of the oil industry downturn .

“These are people who earned fairly significant incomes and have suddenly found themselves out of work.

“For me, it highlights that many of us are living way beyond our means on credit and are only two or three wage slips away from the whole house of cards falling down.

“Last October, one man arrived at the food bank in a Porsche 4×4 with a welfare reform grant from the local authority to spend with us. On his first visit, he just wanted in and out, but on his second visit, his story poured out.

“He had been working in the oil industry earning a good income but had lost his job and his house had been repossessed and his car was about to be repossessed.

“I have more compassion for people who have lived in poverty for some time but the reality is that very few of us haven’t lived beyond our means.”

Dave urged Scotland’s next government, who will have extra powers over welfare, to aim to lift more families out of poverty.

He said: “We are faced daily with people who are in dire need and, without a change in policy, that will get worse.

“With the devolution of certain welfare ­powers, the Scottish Government need to take stock of what is happening to low income families.

“At the moment, they allocate £100million a year to welfare support through local ­authorities. Further initiatives like that need to be taken if we are to help families out of poverty and strife.”

Jake Molloy, regional organiser of the RMT union, who represents offshore workers, urged investment in preparing the North Sea oil and gas industry for the future.

He said: “In this election, we need to influence Westminster to properly manage the ­exploitation of our natural resources.

“Westminster have fundamentally failed to do that and we need the Scottish Parliament to hold them to account.

“Why would you want to have oil and gas at $30 a barrel? Why don’t we throttle back, invest in the infrastructure and get it fit for purpose for when the good times return?

“All I hear is we need to increase ­productivity. I don’t get that at all. We have valuable resources and we should be managing them properly.

“We should get the plants and equipment repaired and maintained, carry out the big infrastructure projects and prepare ourselves for the future – not going full tilt and running equipment into the ground.”

He added: “We are sitting on millions of tons of coal but are importing coal from across the world. Are we going to end up in the same ­position with crude oil?”

The city has three constituencies. Aberdeen Donside, which has been a SNP seat for 13 years, takes in the north of the city and stretches out to the airport.

It includes suburbs such as Dyce and Bridge of Don, which are popular with well-paid oil workers.

The SNP’s popular MSP Brian Adam ­represented the seat from 2003 until his death from cancer in 2013.

Mark McDonald held the seat for the SNP in a by-election but with a reduced majority of 2025 votes.

However, he is confident that his party will win again in next month’s election.

He said: “The downturn in the oil industry is being keenly felt in the area and I have been impressing upon people on the doorstep the marked contrast approach of the Scottish and UK Governments.

“We were told that the broad shoulders of the UK would protect and support the industry. But when the crunch came, those broad ­shoulders simply seemed to shrug.

“The Scottish Government set up an energy jobs task force to support workers facing ­redundancy, £25million to provide transition training for people looking to move into ­different sectors and a small business bonus scheme which is a lifeline for companies in difficult times such as now.

“I think that demonstrates the difference between the two governments and people recognise that the Scottish Government have a strong track record.”

Standing for Labour in the constituency is Greg Williams, who is supply chain manager in the oil and gas industry.

He called for the creation of a UK oil and gas body that would invest public money in

preventing platforms and pipelines being ­abandoned and lost for good.

Williams said the model for the body was Norwegian company Statoil, who are two-thirds owned by the Norwegian government.

He said: “The government would make direct investments in platforms and pipelines that are at risk of being prematurely ­decommissioned.

“They are struggling at the moment because the price of oil is low but they are surrounded by other small fields that haven’t been ­developed yet.

“If they are decommissioned too early, Scotland will lose future jobs and production from those surrounding smaller fields.

“By taking a shareholding in these platforms, we would share the risk but we would also share the profit.”

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