Scotland’s energy future has become a central issue in the Aberdeen South by election campaign, with First Minister John Swinney arguing that voters face a choice over who should control the country’s energy resources.

The vote takes place on Thursday and comes at a time of continuing debate over the future of the North Sea, energy security, investment and the transition to new industries.

Speaking during the campaign, the First Minister said the election offered voters an opportunity to back a different approach to the management of Scotland’s energy wealth.

He said:

“The choice people face in Aberdeen South could not be clearer.

“Who controls Scotland’s energy, Westminster politicians or the people of Scotland?

“Only the SNP is fighting to put Scotland’s energy in Scotland’s hands.

“People know that for decades Westminster governments have ripped off our energy resources and ruined oil and gas jobs, rising energy bills and lost jobs are the damning legacy of Westminster control.

“Every single vote for Richard Thomson and the SNP is a vote to put an end to that Westminster rip-off.

“The SNP is the only party offering the positive vision where Scotland’s energy wealth finally benefits the people of Aberdeen and the whole of our country.

“The Westminster threat to our energy and our industry has been there for all to see in recent years.

“If we continue to allow Westminster politicians control over our own energy, the same Westminster injustice will be inflicted on Aberdeen’s future as it was in Aberdeen’s past.

“Nigel Farage’s Reform and the Tories offer the same version of that past, Westminster politicians who only ever see Scotland’s energy resources as a cash machine for the UK Treasury.

“This Thursday, only the SNP is strong enough to beat them both.

“The only way to end Westminster’s rip-off of our energy is to finally put Scotland’s energy into Scotland’s hands with a vote for the SNP and independence, that is what is on the ballot paper this Thursday.”

The comments underline how energy policy remains one of the defining political issues in north east Scotland, where thousands of jobs have been linked to the oil and gas sector for generations.

Questions over investment, industrial transition, energy security and the future direction of the economy continue to dominate political debate in the region.

With polling day approaching, voters in Aberdeen South are being presented with sharply different visions for how Scotland’s energy resources should be managed and who should ultimately benefit from them.