The scale of Scotland’s reliance on North Sea revenues has been underlined as the SNP Government poses as a champion of the oil and gas industry that it abandoned.

The latest official summary of Scotland’s public finances makes worrying reading for advocates of independence as it lays bare the challenges posed by a fall in North Sea tax receipts in the latest year, to £4.1bn from £4.9bn.

The drop sent Scotland’s notional deficit ballooning to £18.7bn from £16bn. The figures contained in the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland Statistics (GERS) release suggest the investment in renewables which the SNP Government has hailed did not help much.

The release notes: “The results for this year’s publication show overall public finances in Scotland weakening, as expenditure grew faster than revenue. Revenues from the North Sea and the Energy Profits Levy fell in 2024-25 for the second year as energy prices continued to fall back from the highs seen in 2022 and 2023.”

READ MORE: Scottish windfarms paid £120m in six months not to generate electricity

If Scotland had voted for independence in 2014 the country would be facing tough choices now with tax rises or spending cuts required to cut the deficit.

In 2024-25, Scotland’s current budget deficit as a share of GDP was 8.3%, compared to 7.3% in 2023-24. The corresponding share for the UK increased to 2.5% from 2.3%.

The European Union, which the SNP wants Scotland to rejoin, has set a limit of 3% of GDP for annual government deficits.

So much for the promise made by Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon in the 2014 indyref campaign that the oil and gas industry would fuel a prosperous future for the country.

Amid a publicity drive for her memoir, Frankly, last month, Ms Sturgeon said Mr Salmond probably didn’t read the details in the document that made the case for independence.

The case was undermined by the slump in the North Sea that started after oil prices peaked in 2014 and the downturn triggered by the pandemic.

Ms Sturgeon then decided to turn her back on the oil and gas industry after concluding there was more political advantage to be........

© Herald Scotland