Oil giants can’t litter our seas

Sir, – Regarding the article in The Courier (“Report claims decom jobs ‘bonanza’ is a myth”, January 11), I have to agree there will be no bonanza in Dundee due to decommissioning platforms, for many reasons.

The £10 million spent by Port of Dundee owners Forth Ports on a heavy-lift decommissioning quayside was folly, as the huge ship that removes the topsides in one lift, Allseas Pioneering Spirit, would have difficulty getting close to the dock without a massive dredging operation.

However, the input from our SNP MSP, Mr

Alex Neil, to leave the platforms in place and allow them to rust away is just about the most ill-informed suggestion I have heard in a long time.

All of these structures are a shipping and fishing hazard, to start with.

They all contain contamination in the form of oil, drilling muds and radioactive sources (depleted).

All of these by-products and consequences of drilling have to be disposed of safely during the scrapping.

The huge Shell Brent Spar took five years to dispose of due to contamination.

Initially, Shell wanted to dump it in deep water in the Atlantic, but Greenpeace activism and other public protests eventually ensured that did not happen.

Shell now propose to leave their five concrete structures in place in the North Sea, as it seems there was never a plan to remove them.

In contrast, Statoil have a plan to remove all their concrete structures at the end of their useful life.

There is no justification for leaving any of these structures in place.

All licence holders agreed in writing at the outset to leave the seabed as they found it or better at the end of their tenure.

They also signed bonds or Escrow accounts to cover the costs.

Let’s just make sure our children are not left with a major and costly clean-up operation after all the fat cats have gone home. George Sangster. Woodland, Logie, Montrose.