NORTH Sea veteran Bob Keiller has warned that a sudden upswing in global oil prices would be damaging for the long-term health of the sector, as he declared there are signs of recovery in the Aberdeen economy following the downturn sparked by the fall in crude prices in late 2014.

Tens of thousands of North Sea jobs have been cut since the price of oil collapsed three years ago. Having reached $115/ bbl in June 2014, the price of crude dropped to below than $30 per barrel in January last year. Crude prices were trading at around $56 per barrel at 5pm last night.

Aberdeen-based Wood Group, which Mr Keiller led from 2012 to 2015, has itself slashed around 2,000 jobs, and continues to warn that the outlook for the North Sea continues to look bleak.

Mr Keiller, now chairman of Scottish Enterprise, said there is anecdotal evidence of confidence rising again in the North-east, but believes a sharp pick-up in global oil prices could be damaging to the sector.

Speaking at Strathclyde Business School, where he was unveiled as one of several high-profile Entrepreneurial Founders who will teach at the school and the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, Mr Keiller said: “The transition from a downside to an upside is never a single point of time.

“Even though there are some early stage indicators that confidence is returning in some areas, people are adjusting to a long-term lower oil price, and have adjusted their whole business models associated with that, there will still be other companies that reach the end of the road, and there will still be other companies starting up during that period.

“I think we need to be careful that we don’t only focus on the bad news [and] that we also look at the opportunities that come up from new companies. I see people beginning to hire people at the moment, and I use these absolute indicators of economic progress – the taxi drivers – and they tell you when things are busy and they are not busy. They’ve got a great sense of that.

“I look at the footfall through Aberdeen Airport, for instance – indicators like that are all suggesting that perhaps we are beginning to see the start of a slow, soft recovery in the sector.”

And when the recovery gathers pace, Mr Keiller, who has worked in the oil and gas sector for more than 25 years, expressed his hope that it will be sustainable.

“If I can be honest I hope we don’t see a sharp upturn in things like the oil price and we see people rushing back to what were times where the market was over-heated, because I don’t think that is healthy for the longer term,” he said. “But the international oil price is not something any of us can potentially influence.

“Again it is one of these things – we have got to play the ball as we see it.”

Mr Keiller’s comments came as high-profile entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter warned the Scottish education sector faces a stiff challenge in keeping up with the dramatic pace of technological change in the business world.

Sir Tom said: “The pace of change today, we have got this saying, is the fastest it has ever been, but it’s the slowest it will ever be. All the statistics tell us that 100 per cent of the net new jobs in the UK in the next five years will come from smaller businesses.

“Smaller, more entrepreneurial businesses are thriving because they can deal with the change; they are agile, they are taking on the innovation, they are pushing it because of their size. Therefore the world of education, in my opinion, needs to catch up to that. We are putting our young folk into a very different world [compared with] even five years ago. We need to disrupt education to catch up to the world of work. The world of work is running away. And if we don’t make the education relevant the young people will get educated their own way, but it might not be to come to a university if the university is not relevant.”

Sir Tom, owner of West Coast Capital, was speaking as he was also named as an Entrepreneurial Founder at Strathclyde, alongside figures such as Lord Willie Haughey, James Watt, David Sibbald and Chris van de Kuyl. The founders will give up their time to teach students and share their experiences across the university in what Sir Tom said was an unprecedented move. The initiative was launched after the founders attended the Babson Global Symposia for Entrepreneurs Educators (SEE) at Strathclyde Business School.

Sir Tom, who is funding the SEE programme, said he was inspired by the example shown by Babson College in Boston, where successful entrepreneurs “wanted to give something back” by teaching students of entrepreneurship.

He said: “I think it is really powerful having the entrepreneurs and the academics sit [next to each other] because we come from completely different points of view, backgrounds and opinions. But when we listen to each other, I think we get a better output.”

Noting that it will be down to the individual Entrepreneurial Founders to decide how much time they spend on campus, Sir Tom said the long-term goal is for the students to benefit from their experiences because it will make them “better prepared for the world in which they are going to go into. So, [it is] practical, useful learning.”