ENVIRONMENTAL groups have condemned BP's move to drill a new deep water oil well in the far reaches of the North Sea.
Permission has been granted by the UK Government for the exploratory work at the North Uist well, around 80 miles north west of the Shetland Isles.
Drilling off West Shetland has long been of concern to environmental groups and a legal challenge was attempted last year to halt new licences being granted to BP to allow the company to exploit reserves in the area.
The latest licence to be applied for was granted yesterday following "careful scrutiny" of the environmental strategy and emergency response plan proposed by BP, which also had to prove they had taken into account the findings of various reports in the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
BP estimates that in a worst-case scenario a blowout at this well could lead to a spill releasing 75,000 barrels of oil a day for 140 days. A spill lasting that long would cause an oil slick to reach not just the fragile coastline of Shetland, but also Norwegian and Faroese waters.
The development comes after Chancellor George Osborne announced a £3 billion tax relief on oil production west of Shetland.
Dr Richard Dixon, director of WWF Scotland, said: "First the Chancellor doles out billions of pounds worth of tax breaks to the oil and gas industry in the Budget. Next the Energy Minister consents new deepwater drilling. Together they help take the UK further and further away from becoming a zero-carbon country.
"New deepwater drilling is just not worth the risk because we should be phasing out our use of oil instead of chasing ever more difficult sources. BP have already made it clear that a major spill from this well would be a disaster for fishing, tourism and wildlife."
Green MSP Patrick Harvie said the new BP well "locks us into another generation of unhealthy oil dependency".
"Scotland could have a truly green future but we're being let down by a Westminster coalition and an SNP Government, both addicted to oil," he said.
Stan Blackley, chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: "The move to exploit oil reserves in environmentally fragile environments is extremely alarming."
BP said ensuring its activities were safely managed was the company's "absolute priority" and it had safely produced 800 million barrels of oil from West of Shetland since the 1970s.
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