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SCOTTISH First Minister Alex Salmond wilted yesterday under Labour pressure on the true scale of the nation’s oil and gas reserves.
Opposition leader Johann Lamont pummelled him during heated parliamentary exchanges after top industry figure Sir Ian Wood warned that the Scottish government had massively overstated the scale of future oil and gas yields.
The issue is one of the key battlegrounds in the run up to the September 18 independence referendum.
Ms Lamont accused Mr Salmond of listening but not hearing or “wilfully refusing to hear” what Mr Wood was saying following his warning that projections were up to 60 per cent too high.
“Young voters must be fully aware that by the time they’re middle-aged Scotland will have little offshore oil and gas production and this will seriously hit our economy, jobs and public services,” Mr Wood said.
Mr Salmond conceded that the lower figure of 16.5 billion barrels of oil was accurate but speculated hopefully that there could be 7.5bn more if new fields were ever developed.
