Europe puts oilrig firm's 'eviction' under the microscope

Port Services (Invergordon) gave evidence to the EC's petitions committee on its claims that it was "evicted" from its base by the Cromarty Firth Port Authority (CFPA).

After hearing a submission by PSI chairman Les Clark, the committee agreed to write to the Scottish Government and the Office of Fair Trading demanding a detailed response.

Mr Clark said that over the past ten years, CFPA has prevented effective competition, which has had a negative impact on the European market for the inspection, repair and maintenance (IRM) of deep draught semi-submersible drilling rigs for the North Sea oil and gas industries.

The European IRM market is worth about 400 million a year, while the portion spent in the Cromarty Firth is over 120m.

He said CFPA was a public corporation abusing its dominant position and distorting a very narrow European market.

"The port authority's actions towards my company have made our presence and our ability to service contracts completely untenable and will, by creating an oligopoly, lead in the longer term to higher prices and a much reduced level of service," said Mr Clark.

He said in 2008 the CFPA issued PSI with a statutory notice to quit their offices, forcing them to move into a portable building. The following year it was given another notice to quit to create four car-parking places for another firm.

The company says 31 jobs have been lost and it has had to move part of its business to Aberdeen.

He added: "CFPA is abusing its position by forcing my company out of the port for the benefit of our competitors."

Ken Gray, CFPA's port manager/harbour master, said:

"We look forward to co-operating fully with the Scottish Government and other appropriate bodies."