John Swinney was accused of ‘overseeing the death’ of the North Sea as voters went to the polls in a referendum on the oil and gas industry.

The First Minister was blasted over his party’s lack of support for the sector and ties to the anti-fossil fuel Scottish Greens.

Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay said for years the ‘sleekit SNP have behaved in the most dishonest and despicable way’ by pretending to back an industry it doesn’t.

A recent report from the University of Aberdeen estimated almost five billion barrels of oil and gas lie untapped west of Shetland.

Mr Findlay said the ‘great news’ ought to lead to jobs and wealth but instead the paper could become the ‘obituary’ of a mistreated industry.

As voters cast their ballots in the Westminster by-election in Aberdeen South on Thursday, he put Mr Swinney on the spot at First Minister’s Questions.

He said: ‘A new report has revealed massive oil and gas reserves off Shetland, an estimated 4.7billion barrels of oil, which is great news.

‘Yet our imports are at their highest levels since the 1970s and much of the gas we use is fracked in the United States, generating four times higher CO2.

‘These new fields can provide cleaner domestic energy for decades, while supporting thousand of jobs, but the Aberdeen University researchers warn that their paper might serve as an obituary to the industry unless we get drilling.

‘Does John Swinney agree that we should get drilling, or will he help to oversee the death of Scotland’s oil and gas industry?’

Mr Swinney tried to dodge the question by talking about the 78 per cent windfall tax imposed by successive Westminster governments on oil and gas profits since 2022.

He said: ‘Companies are telling me that they are finding it difficult to invest because of the energy profits levy that was started by the Conservatives and which has been carried on by the Labour government in Westminster.’

The by-election has been billed as a local referendum on the future of oil and gas, with the Tories blasting the SNP’s ‘presumption against’ drilling new fields.

The government’s official position was set out in a draft energy strategy in 2023 and has yet to be updated, leaving the presumption in place, mirroring Labour’s at Westminster.

Mr Findlay said Tory candidate Douglas Lumsden was ‘Aberdeen’s oil and gas champion’.

He told MSPs: ‘He has persistently demanded to know when the SNP government will publish its delayed energy strategy.

‘SNP ministers have done precisely nothing about it in the first five months of this year. Absolutely nothing.

‘For years, this sleekit SNP have behaved in the most dishonest and despicable way.

‘John Swinney pretends to support oil and gas while he still backs the anti-drilling policy of Nicola Sturgeon and the Green Party. With 1,000 jobs being lost every single month, when will John Swinney start telling workers the truth?’

Mr Swinney called his opponent ‘desperate’.

He said: ‘Mr Findlay and his party in government brought forward the energy profits levy.

‘They applied it with impetus and increased it and extended it.

‘And what is it doing? It’s culling jobs in the North East of Scotland. It’s the responsibility of the Conservatives.’

The knife-edge contest was triggered by former SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn switching to Holyrood last month.

There is also a by-election in Arbroath & Broughty Ferry following former SNP MP Stephen Gethins also switching to Holyrood.

Although energy policy and licensing are reserved to Westminster, the Scottish Government’s attitude is seen as critical to would-be investors.

In recent months, the SNP have said licences should be based on climate compatibility tests and energy security but have failed to enshrine their position in a final energy strategy.

Meanwhile, Mr Swinney also apologised to the girl who was attacked by Bulgarian Ilia Belov in Dundee last August, after her case was raised by Reform UK’s Scottish leader Malcolm Offord.

The girl, then 12, was seen with an axe and knife in images circulated on social media, leading to false claims about her. Belov, 22, had told her: ‘Come here sexy. I will show you how to have a good time.’

He was convicted last week of assaulting her and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner towards four girls aged between 12 and 14.

Lord Offord said the girl had been arrested during the incident in the Lochee area of the city and ‘wildly vilified for wielding an axe and a knife’ to ‘fend off a Bulgarian migrant and his sister’.

He said that when tycoon Elon Musk posted the question, ‘What kind of government arrests little girls who try to defend themselves?’ the First Minister ‘piled in, accusing him of spreading misinformation’.

He went on: ‘The mother of this child, quite rightly, has demanded an apology from the police and from the First Minister for her daughter being branded as a liar, Right-wing and a racist. Will the First Minister take this opportunity to issue such an apology?’

Mr Swinney said he had made his comments based on information from Police Scotland.

He said he would ‘make no apology for taking on Elon Musk’ as the X owner was not ‘an actor in good faith on these questions’.

But he added: ‘I, of course, apologise to the young woman and her family concerned.’