§ Mr. Stephen Rossasked the Secretary of State for Energy (1) whether his Department has recently received reports of oil pollution in Sutherland; and whether samples taken have been matched with samples from the recently announced Mesa Petroleum oil find in the Moray Firth area;
(2) whether he has received any report from the Mesa Petroleum Company of a spillage of oil as required under its exploration licence; and what action his Department intends to take in this matter;
(3) in the knowledge that oil operations are likely to lead to accidental spills, what effective safeguards his Department is taking to minimise risks to vulnerable wildlife, most especially with regard to oilfields close inshore and in areas of high wildlife value.
§ Dr. J. Dickson MabonRules incorporated in legislation and in licences require operators to exercise care in carrying out drilling and production operations 375W in all seaward areas and to report any spillage which occurs. Further, the operators are expected to have contingency plans for dealing with spillages and to tackle them in the first instance. My Department is currently assessing the adequacy of these contingency plans and will take into account the proximity of the installations concerned to environmentally sensitive areas.
I have no evidence that the accidental spillages from Mesa Petroleum's activities in the Moray Firth in September and December of last year were due to want of reasonable care. Further, the total quantity of oil involved was small—about 25 barrels—and the operator took remedial action in each instance. In the circumstances prosecution would not be justified. However, the operators did not, as required by the licence, report the September spillage forthwith. They did report the smaller December spill. My Department has written to the operator and all the licensees interested in the development drawing their attention to this breach of the licence and warning them such failures put their licence at risk. Further arrangements have been made to change the well testing procedure to reduce the risk of accident. Samples of oil taken from the beach at Loth Point in Sutherland do match closely oil from the Mesa field. Moreover. the operators have admitted responsibility.
My Department will carefully watch the development of this field and any others similarly located.