The North Sea oil industry is entering its final decade of production, according to new academic research that rejects Alex Salmond’s claims during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum campaign of an impending second boom.

An Edinburgh University study of output from offshore fields estimated that only around 10 per cent of the UK's original recoverable oil and gas remains untapped.

It also concluded that fracking will be barely economically feasible in the UK, especially in Scotland, because of a lack of sites with suitable geology. The researchers warned that the UK will soon have to import all the oil and gas it needs.

Official figures published last week found that oil production increased by 2.9 per cent last year following a recovery in the price. However, capital expenditure dropped by around 20 per cent and it has emerged there were 60,000 job losses in the industry last year, 20,000 more than expected.

The Scottish Government is expected to set out its view on fracking shortly after imposing a moratorium on the controversial method of extracting gas in January 2015.