The Scottish Government is continuing to survey and analyse results of information collected around the site of the North Sea oil leak at the Shell Gannet F Subsea installation.
Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead has been in contact with Shell and the SOSREP where he urged again for better communication and stressed the importance of openness and transparency.
Mr Lochhead said:
“We have made clear the Scottish Government’s primary role is to assess and advise on the impact this spill may have on the marine environment.
“The current information we have is that only one oiled bird has been spotted – there is no evidence of any significant impact. The Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) advice is that bird densities in the area are low – analysis of the preliminary survey carried out during yesterday’s flight is currently being undertaken. Initial results will be available once the Environment Group has reviewed and assessed the information. The results of this first survey will be used to inform further more detailed and robust surveys – the next, more extensive, one is planned for tomorrow and will involve a specialist aircraft and two trained observers.
“We do not expect fisheries to be impacted, but again monitoring will be undertaken. Marine Scotland’s Fisheries Research Vessel Scotia has been diverted to the area and tasked to take samples from the incident area for analysis.
“I have spoken with both Shell’s senior management and the UK Government’s offshore incident representative Hugh Shaw over the past 24 hours and I stressed, once again, the importance of clear communication on the current operation and the expectation people have for complete openness and transparency on the situation. I was assured by both that this point had been taken on board, and I’m pleased to see that steps have now been taken to put more information in the public domain. This must continue.”
Images taken by a Marine Scotland surveillance aircraft on August 15 can be accessed at:
Video footage taken on August 15 is online at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MarineLaboratory#p/a/u/0/C3Gy9t-a_2U
Marine Scotland officials are in the Operations Control Unit to ensure that Scottish Ministers are kept informed of developments and are heading up the Environment Group for the unit. The Operations Control includes representatives from Shell, UK Government department, Marine Scotland and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.
Under the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 roles and responsibilities for responding to marine pollution are set out in the National Contingency Plan. The UK Department for Transport and their agency the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) are in the lead for Government, with Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) where an offshore installation is involved.
The National Contingency Plan is currently being reviewed by the MCA in order to take account of lessons learned from the Gulf of Mexico and the recent national oil spill exercise which the First Minister instigated (Exercise Sula took place on 18-19 May this year in Scottish waters).
Exercise Sula was ‘played’ at a number of locations in Aberdeen and Shetland, covering scenarios around the immediate aftermath of a deep-water oil spill and then oil potentially coming ashore one week later. This included a practical demonstration of response equipment and procedures, to which the media was invited. Marine Scotland, Resilience and communications officials took part in the Exercise – chairing the Environment Group and participating in a number of the response cells. A report of the Exercise is being prepared by DECC and the Maritime Coastguard Agency and will published shortly.
