Boring chap perhaps, but he keeps us going (6)
I believe the answer is:
oilman
'but he keeps us going' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'boring chap' is the wordplay.
'boring' becomes 'oil' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'chap' becomes 'Man' (chap can mean a man).
'oil'+'man'='OILMAN'
'perhaps' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for oilman that I've seen before include "Owner of company that sinks wells for fuel" , "One working in the "black gold" industry" , "Worker" , "Person involved with crude" .)