Chamber and committees

The former Minister for Climate Action last met with representatives of the Shell Natural Gas Liquids plant, and Exxonmobil Fife Ethylene Plant on 28 October 2024. The Minister discussed with the businesses, their views on Just Transition planning, their long-term plans, as well as wider matters regarding participation in the Acorn project and engagement with the UK Government regarding the Track process.

Scottish Government Ministers have not met with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency or the Health and Safety Executive in that last 4 years to specifically discuss the Mossmorran industrial complex.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on the specific upstream fields that supply feedstock to the Mossmorran Natural Gas Liquid Plant, operated by Shell.

Heating oil and liquified petroleum gas supply chains and energy price regulation are reserved matters. The Scottish Government continues to engage constructively with the UK Government on a regular basis, including on the need to ensure that all energy consumers are suitably considered and protected in matters of regulation and use of reserved policy powers.

High energy prices remain the single greatest driver of fuel poverty. The Social Tariff Working Group recommended that all fuel types should be covered by a social tariff mechanism. This should include support for those using alternative fuels with off-grid consumers treated equitably to those on-grid. This support may be more appropriately delivered via a separate scheme.

We have consistently offered to work with the UK Government to ensure that adequate support is provided to those that need it the most.

The Home Energy Scotland website has estimates on the potential annual savings from installing a standard air source heat pump where there is an existing oil or LPG boiler: https://www.homeenergyscotland.org/heat-pumps

We provide uplifts through our Heat in Buildings delivery schemes to help meet additional challenges faced by homeowners in rural and island communities. The Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan offers an uplift of £1,500 to the grant and loan funding available for energy efficiency measures in remote rural areas and islands. The Warmer Homes Scotland scheme operates a national customer price model to ensure equal access to grant funded installation of energy efficiency improvements across Scotland, including in rural and island areas. And both our Area Based Schemes and the Social Housing Net Zero Heat Fund provide an uplift to reflect higher delivery costs in more remote areas, of 11% in rural areas and 22% in remote rural/island areas.

Heating oil and liquified petroleum gas supply chains and energy price regulation are reserved matters. We engage constructively with the UK Government on a regular basis.

Scottish Ministers and Scottish Government officials frequently engage with a range of stakeholders involved in the rural off-gas heating market, both in direct meetings and as part of wider consultation events.

I hosted a series of roundtables on 6 August 2025 to discuss the proposed Heat in Buildings Bill at which a range of stakeholders were in attendance, including some representing rural and off-gas grid interests. These roundtables focussed on plans for the Heat in Buildings Bill and included discussion of how to overcome the challenges faced by some rural properties in transitioning to clean heating systems.

The then-Acting Minister for Climate Action, Dr Alasdair Allan MSP, met with the UK and Ireland Fuel Distributors Association, along with other representatives of the off-gas grid heating sector, on 26 February 2025. The discussion focussed on the role that renewable liquid biofuels may play in decarbonising heating in rural buildings. This is in addition to previous ministerial engagement on rural heat which has informed our approach to the Bill.

While not appropriate for most homes, bioenergy, including renewable liquid biofuels, is a low carbon, renewable energy source which may prove the best solution to decarbonising heating in some rural communities. We intend to ensure that sustainable bioenergy and biofuels remain an option for these communities, Heat in Buildings policy takes a technology-neutral approach so that building owners are able to choose the technology which is right for them.

We are currently consulting on proposals for a Heat and Energy Efficiency Technical Suitability Assessment (HEETSA). The consultation will remain open until 29 August 2025. The HEETSA will include a technical suitability assessment methodology that allows for the comparative assessment of different clean heat options in a property and provide information on when the installation of a system would not be suitable.

The Scottish Government's most recent fuel poverty scenario modelling is for the July to September 2025 period under an Ofgem price cap of £1,720 for the typical dual fuel household. This analysis estimated a national fuel poverty rate of 32% (820,000 households) and an extreme fuel poverty rate of 17% (420,000 households).

When broken down by 6 fold rural urban classification 33% of rural households (140,000) were estimated to be in fuel poverty. Table 1 below breaks down the fuel poverty rate by 6 fold rural urban classification for all scenario modelling periods from January 2024 to present, as well as the 2022 and 2023 SHCS key findings figures. However, this modelling does not fully account for recent changes in the prices of alternative fuels such as LPG.

The Scottish Government has no powers over energy pricing which is reserved to the UK Government.

We are concerned that many rural consumers, who rely on unregulated alternative fuels to heat their homes and power their businesses, are not protected from price shocks and market volatility. That is why we continue to call on the UK Government to deliver a social tariff in the form of an automatic and targeted discount - including for those using alternative fuels - to address unaffordable bills at source. We have written to the UK Government sharing our Social Tariff Working Group’s recommendations and seeking urgent delivery of this crucial policy. The powers to implement this remain with the UK Government and we are committed to working closely with them, Ofgem, suppliers and consumer organisations, to advocate for the delivery of a social tariff across Great Britain.

Table 1: Fuel poverty rates by rural urban classification

According to the most recently available data provided to Fife Council by Shell, the total tonnes of natural gas liquids processed at the plant were: FY 2021-22: 2 million, FY 2022-23: 1.9 million and FY 2023-2024 1.9 million. The total number of shipments of propane were 19 in 2021-22, 16 in 2022-23 and 17 in 2023-24; for butane the figures were 15 for 2021-22, 23 for 2022-23 and 20 for 2023-24; for mixed propane butane – 22 for 2021-22, 3 for 2022-23 and 5 for 2023-24 and for gasoline the number of vessels was 27 for 2021-22, 36 for 2022-23 and 36 for 2023-24.

The latest evidence of the economic contribution from the Mossmorran NGL plant, provided by Shell to Fife Council, shows that the plant employed an average 196 people in 2022, 213 in 2023, and 229 people during 2024.

In 2023, Mossmorran’s natural gas liquids plant produced around 0.1MtCO2e, or around 1.5% of Scotland’s industrial emissions. Scotland’s pathway to net-zero will require all polluting businesses to decarbonise over the next two decades where feasible. For Mossmorran’s natural gas liquids plant, carbon capture and storage (CCS) will be a crucial enabling decarbonisation technology. This hugely depends on the development of the Acorn CCS project, which is still waiting on a final decision and the full funding package from the UK Government.