§ Mr. SternTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy, pursuant to his answer of 9 July,Official Report, column 37, to the hon. Member for Linlithgow (Mr. Dalyell), if he will make a statement on the further work under the Piper Alpha abandonment programme.
§ Mr. MoynihanA direction was given to Occidental Petroleum (Caledonia) Ltd. and its co-venturers on 15 August requiring them to carry out as soon as reasonably practicable further works pursuant to the conditions attached to the Piper Alpha abandonment programme as approved by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State. Under the terms of the direction the companies are required:
- (1) Within the safety zone to re-survey an annulus of internal radius 250 metres and external radius 500 metres to determine the position and dimensions of any remains of the installation and to report the results to the Secretary of State. This survey is to be repeated biennially until the Secretary of State is satisfied that any movement of debris—from within to outside the safety zone—will not cause unjustifiable interference with fishing.
- (2) To trawl the area immediately outside the 500-metre safety zone out to a radius of 1,500 metres, to recover debris located by surveys conducted in 1989 and to recover by other means debris too large or heavy to be lifted in a trawl.
- (3) To continue to sample sediment, seawater and biota and to examine the samples for PCBs on a biennial basis until the Secretary of State is satisfied that there is no significant risk to the environment from PCBs associated with the transformers formerly located on the installation.
The survey and analysis of sediment, seawater and biota for radioactivity in 1989 showed no contamination as a result of the accident. However, as a safeguard against the future release of any radioactive material held in the debris pile samples will be examined for radioactivity in 1994—five years after the previous survey—and at such times as the Secretary of State may subsequently specify.