Salmond announces oil fund study

Mr Salmond urged the UK Government to act over rising oil prices

First Minister Alex Salmond is to commission a study on setting up an oil fund for Scotland.

He told BBC Scotland the signs of a "summer of discontent" from rising energy prices could already be seen.

Chancellor Alistair Darling has denied SNP claims that the UK Government is to receive a £4bn windfall from the duty on increased oil prices.

Mr Salmond's study will look at oil producing areas such as Norway, Alberta, Canada, and Alaska in the US.

The first minister's call for an oil fund came amid the soaring price of oil - which has made a record jump to nearly $139 a barrel.

But Mr Darling has said the level of extra VAT revenue from the increased prices paid at fuel station forecourts would not be known until later in the year.

And, amid a downturn in the housing market, the chancellor said, for example, the decrease in stamp duty as a result meant no one tax could be looked at in isolation.

It's that sort of opportunism that we've grown used to from the first minister and some of it is about diverting attention from his difficulties back here Wendy Alexander Scottish Labour leader

But Mr Salmond told BBC Scotland's Politics Show that the UK Government had to act now to help people and businesses.

In a reference to the "winter of discontent" of trade union action in the late 70s, he said: "I think we're already seeing the signs of a summer of discontent, as people are under enormous pressure by the rising energy costs."

He went on: "I'm encouraging the chancellor to do something about it before the situation engulfs his government.

"Unless he concedes an oil fund for Scotland, then I think the Labour Party will be politically engulfed by the Scottish National Party in the coming election."

Mr Salmond said the £500m he had asked for from the so-called UK Government oil windfall would make a start on a Scottish oil fund.

Pros and cons

He said his study would look at independent and non-independent oil producing nations and regions including In Norway, which the Scottish Government said had an oil fund now valued at an estimated £186bn since being set up in 1995.

"I'll commission that study and then Alistair Darling won't be able to be disingenuous any more," said the first minister.

The announcement came after the former senior civil servant, Gavin McCrone, said he wrote an undisclosed report for a Westminster committee in the 1970s about the pros and cons of setting up an oil fund.

But Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander branded Mr Salmond's study "opportunistic".

She said: "He's not offering to take on a share of the national debt, a share of invalidity benefit, a share of pensions.

"It's that sort of opportunism that we've grown used to from the first minister and some of it is about diverting attention from his difficulties back here."