GORDON Brown's proposal to nationalise parts of North Sea oil and gas has been branded "so crazy it is hardly worth commenting on” by one oil industry expert.

Speaking at a lecture in Glasgow yesterday, the former Prime Minister called for the state to take over oil fields that are under threat of being abandoned.

Brown said that public-private partnerships were necessary to keep open fields that are under threat of being mothballed amid current low oil prices. He called for the creation of a North Sea “reserve” that would act as a last resort for oil companies struggling in marginal fields.

But the former Labour leader’s proposals were branded as “claptrap” and “folly” by oil experts and workers yesterday.

“I’m bemused at the audacity of Gordon Brown to come out with these suggestions,” says Alex Russell, professor of petroleum accounting at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.

“It is all too far high risk. He actually advocates a reserve fund to bail companies out if they cannot continue working marginal fields. But if they cannot continue working marginal fields the likelihood is it is not worth doing economically. For the Government to step in there and bail them out is just to throw good money after bad.”

A Labour member and oil worker in Aberdeen described Brown’s proposals as “folly”.

Speaking ahead of yesterday’s lecture, Brown said the North Sea had reached a “tipping point” as companies lay off staff and cut contractors rates amid a global fall in oil prices. Government, he said, should be prepared buy up oil in advance, lend to operators or enter public-private partnerships to take over and run production facilities.

“Ultimately the proposal is to make the most of our oil reserves, rather than to ignore them or to downplay their contribution in the future, particularly given the volatility of the world oil market and the strong prospect prices could rise again,” said the MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, who is stepping down from Westminster after 33 years in Parliament in May.

Public investment in the oil industry is quite common internationally, says Alex Kemp, professor of petroleum economics at Aberdeen University. A previously nationalised oil company, British National Oil Corporation, was privatised in the early 1980s. Norway has two state oil companies.

“[Brown’s] idea is not particularly new. But how the details will actually work is not very clear,” Kemp told the National.

Scottish nationalists accused Brown of failing to protect the North Sea during almost a decade as Labour Chancellor.

“As a Chancellor who treated Scotland’s oil as a cash cow, imposed the supplementary tax on the North Sea industry in the first place, then doubled it — and left office having failed to set up an oil fund to deliver any long-term benefit from our own natural resources — Gordon Brown is responsible for undermining investment in this vital industry,” said Stewart Hosie, SNP Deputy Leader.

“The Scottish Government has already published a comprehensive action plan to help the North Sea industry and protect tens of thousands of jobs, and it would be good if Mr Brown could help make up for the damage he did when in office by backing it. This includes an investment allowance to provide support for fields that incur higher costs to develop, a reversal of the increase in the supplementary charge implemented by the UK Government in 2011, and the introduction of an exploration tax credit to help increase levels of exploration and sustain future production.

“Whatever good ideas Mr Brown has now, by definition he didn’t implement them in the 13 years when he was Chancellor and Prime Minister.”

Alex Russell said that in office Labour had been only “interested in obtaining as much revenue from the North Sea as possible, as quickly as possible, without thinking ahead to the current situation”.

Rather than establish potentially extremely costly private-public partnerships, the UK Government should reduce the rate of tax paid by oil and gas companies in the North Sea to 20 per cent, in line with all other companies, says Russell. “That would have a bigger incentive for the oil companies to stay here and they wouldn’t be a risk to the Government.”

Rather than nationalising the liabilities of oil and gas companies the best way to protect the North Sea is to devolve full control of energy policy to Holyrood, says Russell.

“This is an attempt to win votes for the Labour Party in the General Election. It is disguised as saving the North Sea oil industry. The best way to save the North Sea oil industry is to devolve responsibility to the country in which the economic activity takes place, and that happens to be Scotland.

“Why on earth did Gordon Brown not suggest that the full powers over the North Sea industry be devolved to the Scottish Parliament? Had that happened we would not be in the crisis we are in today. The Scottish Government would be taking action to ensure the North Sea industry survived in the way that the United Kingdom Government appears not to be doing.”

Significant job losses are expected in the north-east as oil companies tighten their belts. Last week oil doyen Ian Wood predicted that “15,000 jobs will go in the next few months”.Chancellor George Osborne is expected to announce the introduction of field allowances to spur investment and the lowering of the tax take on the industry to just below 50 per cent from 60 per cent in his Budget on March 18.

Kevin Forbes, managing director of recruitment company Oil and Gas People, and a former offshore contractor, says while the North Sea is currently “on freeze” Scotland’s offshore industry is far from finished: “I think there is short-term pain for long-term gain,” says Forbes, who points to savings that companies are making that could lead to a “mini-boom” when oil prices rise. “There is still a lot of work left in the North Sea. There is still a lot of oil to be discovered in the North Sea,” he said.