Michael Moore: UK Govt committed to helping small oil and gas firms The UK Government is committed to providing support for small and medium businesses involved in the oil and gas industry, according to the Scottish Secretary. Michael Moore will outline the coalition's work within the sector when he appears at an event about access to finance in Aberdeen on Thursday. Mr Moore will tell the industry that Westminster will intervene with a variety of measures when businesses struggle to access finance externally. He is expected to say: "All of us here today understand the importance of the oil and gas sector to the Scottish and wider UK economy. We also understand that this is an industry that needs investment to continue to develop, support and grow. But there remains a significant minority of viable businesses - particularly smaller ones or first-time applicants - who face real challenges in accessing external finance. Where the market fails them, we in Government are stepping in to help ensure that their needs are met with schemes such as Funding for Lending, Enterprise Finance Guarantee and the Government-backed Business Bank. All of these Government schemes are designed to achieve our ambition of making the UK the best place in the world to start, finance and grow a small business. Mr Moore's appearance at the industry-organised event follows the launch of an independent review into oil and gas production by Energy Secretary Ed Davey earlier this week. "As announced by Ed Davey on Monday, Sir Ian Wood will work with industry leaders and Government to make recommendations to support future economic recovery of the oil and gas industry," he will say. This will be a wholesale review of an industry of vital national economic importance, supporting 440,000 jobs. Sir Ian is a highly-respected figure in the industry and his leadership will bring real firepower to this review - the first in more than 20 years.