'Forth Ports made a tactical withdrawal'

Published on Friday 1 February 2008 09:25

THE news that Forth Ports is abandoning its plans to apply for permission to transfer oil from ship to ship in the Firth of Forth will be regarded as a victory by environment campaigners. But given there is no assurance that the plans have been dropped in perpetuity, it is a pragmatic and tactical withdrawal to avoid legislation which could have outlawed it for good.

A decision to proceed at this time would almost certainly have led to the scheme being scrutinised by the Scottish Parliament with a strong probability of new laws which would make the transfers impossible in the future.

The idea of putting forward special legislation to create marine conservation areas was first mooted by the Greens when Forth Ports announced its proposals last year. Had the parliament not considered such action, the private company could effectively have been judge and jury on the proposal as they control the estuary and have almost complete say over its civil use.

But city MP Mark Lazarowicz upped the stakes when he announced he was planning to introduce a Private Members Bill at Westminster to prevent ship to ship transfers taking place.

It is surely no coincidence that within days of Mr Lazarowicz agreeing to drop his Bill, having had an assurance from Shipping Minister Jim Fitzpatrick that he planned to introduce legislation covering this, Forth Ports announced it was not planning to proceed.

Of course Forth Ports stood to gain financially from allowing 7.8 million tonnes of Russian crude oil a year to be pumped between tankers anchored four miles off the coast. But after environmentalists voiced their concern that the company would balance its view in favour of potential earnings against the possibility of a major oil spillage, politicians immediately questioned whether the company was in the best position to make a fair judgement on the process.

Forth Ports says today that having carried out a thorough assessment of the risks using both internal and external advisors it believes such an operation is feasible, although they concede that the highest standard of safety measures would be required if the shoreline was to be protected.

With legislation still possible they may yet have to present their evidence in detail, and be prepared for the closest scrutiny from a Green lobby that is suspicious of anything which involves major businesses.

But from today's announcement it seems that even they acknowledge that unless circumstances dramatically change, any chance of the transfers going ahead, safely or not, may be sunk by a tidal wave of political opinion.