As President Trump visits Scotland, Explore Europe’s oil capital Aberdeen
Scotland’s Aberdeen is the “oil capital of Europe,” Trump explained after landing domestically. He will also visit Turnberry and meet with EU President Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Kiel’s Starge.
President Trump is Visit Scotland This weekend I spent time at two golf clubs, one of which took part in the ribbon cutting of my new course. He will also meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Aberdeen British Prime Minister Kiel Starmer.
Known as a local quarry stone granite city, Aberdeen is used in many of its finest buildings, but it builds its economy. Oil and gas industry, It is a city currently undergoing transition.
“They have so much oil there,” President Trump told reporters in a recent phone interview with BBC News. The vast oil fields in the nearby North Sea have been called “European oil capital.”
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Supply vessels used in the oil, gas and renewable energy industries were docked on April 29, 2022 at the Port of Aberdeen in northeastern Scotland. (Photo by Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)
When BP struck Black Gold under the infamous, rough waters of the North Sea in the early 1970s, it heralded the era of economic growth in Aberdeen, which had previously been more famous as a Scottish fishing boat home.
The first oil field tapped was a field from the 40s, over 100 miles offshore. There was an estimated 2 billion barrels of oil, and by the peak of production in 1979 it produced 500,000 barrels each day.

President Donald Trump plays golf at the Trump Turnberry Golf Course in Turnberry, Scotland on July 26, 2025. President Donald Trump is visiting Trump Turnberry Golf Course and Trump International Golf Link in Aberdeenshire during AB (Photo: Christopher Farlong / Getty Images / Getty Images)
Over the next decades, some of the industry’s biggest names, including Shell, Eso, ConocoPhillips, Mobile and Statoil, established drilling or pipeline operations with Aberdeen as hubs as hundreds of oil drilling rigs dotted the North Sea and the industry created an estimated 100,000 jobs.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the North Sea oil and gas industry became a major driver of the UK economy and pushed the UK to become the fifth largest oil producer in the world. Aberdeen’s success was also a source of pride for the people.

Supply vessels used in the oil, gas and renewable energy industries were anchored on April 29, 2022 by Caledonian oil tanks in Aberdeen Harbor, northeast of Scotland. (Photo by Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)
“It was the Americans who went to the moon and returned with honor,” said former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, speaking about a meeting of oil industry executives in the mid-1980s, but here in the UK, the oil industry is at a deep bottom, earning oil as well as honor. ”
Modern Aberdeen is a city experiencing a generational change. Oil and gas production has declined 5% each year since the turn of the millennium, with hundreds of oil wells being abolished.
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Northeast Scotland has a reluctant approval for finite oil and gas resources, and the region is consistent with the green economy transition that doesn’t offer new jobs to everyone working in the oil industry.
Prior to his visit to Scotland, President Trump called for more North Sea drilling and criticised the UK’s transition to renewable energy sources.

Calzen’s total platform is depicted on April 8, 2019 in the North Sea, about 45 miles (70 km) east of Aberdeen, the self-proclaimed oil capital of Europe, on Scotland’s northeast coast. (Photo by Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)
On arrival Friday, Trump reflected criticism of renewable energy. “Stop the windmill. You’re ruining your country. I really mean that. It’s so sad. You fly away, you ruin your beautiful fields and valleys, kill your birds, kill your beautiful fields and birds,” he told reporters.
This is music with the ears of oil industry executives with deep roots in the Aberdeen economy and deep pockets that hold the pro oil and gas agenda in their headlines. They are lobbying vigorously to remove a 78% tax on profits and seeking more drilling licenses.
However, more fossil fuel production is not compatible with the UK’s international climate commitment and its goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. The city of Aberdeen has its own climate target, aiming to become net-zero by 2045.

On July 18, 2022, golfers will play at the Nigg Bay Golf Club overlooking the Port of Aberdeen and Aberdeen Bay Wind Farm in Aberdeen, Scotland. (Getty Images/Emily McInnes via Getty Images/Bloomberg)
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President Trump’s opposition to Aberdeen’s renewable energy projects is well documented. He previously fought a long court battle and was defeated to stop the construction of a wind farm not too far from the golf course coastline.
He argued that 11 turbines would ruin the views from Link, but in 2019 a Scottish court ruled over him and ordered Trump International Golf Club Scotland Inc. to pay the Scottish government bill as part of the ruling.