§ Mr. Campbellasked the Secretary of State for Energy whether he has reached a decision on the development programme for the Beatrice oilfield.
§ Dr. J. Dickson MahonI today advised the Beatrice oilfield operator—Mesa—that the development plan submitted to the Department is not acceptable. The plan involved offshore loading based on a 250,000 ton storage vessel permanently moored only 12 miles offshore. The consultants appointed to consider this proposal advised that, whilst the principles on which it is based are sound, it is a novel development requiring further design, engineering and tank testing before it could, with confidence, be approved for use in the manner and location proposed. A second firm of consultants has advised me that in its view transportation by pipeline of the Beatrice oilfield's waxy crude is technically and economically viable: a pipeline transportation system would of course, remove or minimise the environmental implications of the proposed development particularly in relation to fishing activities on the Smith Bank.
Accordingly I have invited Mesa and its partners to reconsider the situation, and I expect to receive from them early in the new year a revised development programme for the Beatrice oilfield based on oil transportation by pipeline. I have also made it clear that because of the impact on fishing activities and the environmental hazards associated with a waxy crude oil close to coasts of the Moray Firth, I would be unlikely to approve any proposal for production from a conventional offshore loading system on a temporary basis until the main production facilities are completed.