Oil rig graveyard on the Clyde that bosses hope will rival Turkey’s ‘Blowtorch Beach’
SCOTLAND is set to become a major player in the lucrative decommissioning industry, which will bring hundreds of jobs and millions of pounds to the economy.
Plans are under way to turn former coal docks on the Firth of Clyde into a massive marine scrapyard.
At present, rigs due to be scrapped are sent to Bangladesh or Turkey – including the notorious ‘Blowtorch Beach’, a graveyard of heavy industry. But now rigs from the North Sea and elsewhere in Europe could instead be towed into the Hunterston Coal Terminal in Ayrshire.
Peel Ports, which also plans to build offshore wind turbines at the site, believes it could bring a £250 million decommissioning boom to the country. It is in talks with Scottish Enternificant
‘Significant risks and threats’
prise in the hope of securing £10 million funding and starting decommissioning work in 2020.
But the plans have attracted opposition from locals who are concerned about the environmental impact.
In 2016, the Scottish Mail on Sunday traced the Transocean Winner rig, which ran aground off the Outer Hebrides that year, to its final destination – the giant breakers’ yard on the Turkish coast known as Blowtorch Beach.
David Nairn, of the Clyde Maritime Mammal Project, pointed to the ‘catastrophic environmental destruction’ at the Turkish site despite ‘very strict marine pollution laws’.
He said an oil rig decommissioning port at Hunterston would pose ‘sig- risks and threats’ to Scottish waters.
Oil and Gas UK, which represents the decommissioning industry, and Peel Ports insist that would not be the fate of the Ayrshire coastline.
They said the rigs would be brought into a dry dock, rather than hauled on to a beach and contaminating sand which flows back into the sea.
Peel Ports would also face losing its licence if it failed to stop pollution.
Scottish Enterprise said the project was ‘fully considered’ by its board last week, and ‘it was felt that more information was required to inform our decision’.