AN INDEPENDENT Scotland would need to nationalise the North Sea oil industry to pay for public services and kick-start a renewables energy boom, a left-wing economist has warned, writes Tom Gordon.

Rafi de Santos, who advised Norway on its state-owned oil industry, said nationalisation was also needed to create a Scottish oil fund. The Grangemouth refinery and petrochemical plant should also be nationalised, he added. His comments fly in the face of the SNP's emphasis on continuity for the oil industry.

Speaking at the Radical Independence Conference in Glasgow, de Santos said Scotland would inherit around £110 billion in debt from the UK upon independence, and have a £12bn deficit. He said Scotland could not rely on just the taxes from the privately owned oil industry to pay down its debt, run a new currency and banking system, and realign the economy from fossil fuel to renewables.

"It would not be possible to build a stable economy based on just 30% of those oil reserves. That's how much we get in terms of taxation. We would have to go for full nationalisation of the oil industry," he said.

He estimated revenue from public ownership of North Sea oil could be worth £55bn a year for 20 years, and also said Clyde shipyard workers could switch to making wave and tidal power turbines and generators.