Can oil and gas workers move into renewables easily?

Many oil and gas workers have skills that can transfer into renewables, but the jobs, projects and investment are not yet available at the scale needed.

Robert Gordon University’s 2026 Delivering Positive Energy report says more than 90% of oil and gas skills are readily transferable to adjacent offshore energy sectors - but around 90% of the North-east of Scotland’s offshore energy workforce is still in oil and gas, with only 10% in renewables.

The transition can create major opportunities for oil and gas workers, but only if clean energy projects are consented, connected and built quickly enough.

Scotland has a major offshore wind opportunity, the vast majority of which is still in the pipeline. Offshore Wind Scotland says the country has a 40GW of offshore wind in development but just 4.3GW was operational at the end of 2025 according to Scottish Government.

That gap matters for workers, particularly while oil and gas jobs are already being lost. RGU says the UK oil and gas workforce shrank by around 75,000 between 2016 and 2024, and that the North East’s offshore energy workforce could fall by a further 18,000 by 2035 if future investment and activity do not come through. Renewable job creation is not currently keeping pace with oil and gas decline.