Energy secretary Ed Miliband has denied avoiding the oil and gas sector as he visited Aberdeen, the BBC has reported.
During a visit to the Granite City, Miliband said he was "delighted" to be here and said the government's decision to base GB Energy in Aberdeen was a "vote of confidence" in the region's workforce.
Speaking to BBC Scotland, the minister said he would be working with the Scottish government and the industry to speed up delivery of support to help oil and gas worker transition into renewables jobs.
He also promised that hundreds of jobs at GB Energy would be based at the Aberdeen HQ.
The UK government plans to invest £8.3billion in GB Energy over the course of its term, but is expected to raise the cash through a controversial windfall tax on oil and gas firms.
Asked if he had been avoiding the North Sea since coming to power in July, Miliband told BBC Scotland: “Absolutely not.
"I’m delighted to be here talking about how GB Energy, a new publicly owned energy company, is going to be headquartered here in Aberdeen.
“It is a vote of confidence in the workforce here, a vote of confidence in businesses here and it is a sign of our determination that Aberdeen is not just the clean energy capital of the UK but of the whole of Europe.”