Fears for Solway wildlife as oil hunt begins

the Solway

ANY day now a huge rig will be tugged from Greenock into the strait

between Scotland and Northern Ireland to begin the offshore search for

hydrocarbons in the Solway basin.

British Gas has hired Global Adriatic XI, a drilling rig half the size

of a football pitch to sink the Laggantalluch well 2500 metres deep and

three kilometres off the Rhinns of Galloway.

Contrary to recent press reports, the company will not be daft enough

to drill within Beaufort's Dyke, Western Europe's largest munitions

dump. Liz Mortlock, media relations manager for British Gas Exploration

and Production, said: ''We have conducted a full and thorough survey

with television cameras and magnetic equipment, and we are completely

satisfied that there are no munitions within the rig site and that we

have done everything we can to make our operation there safe.''

Drilling will take place 5 kilometres from the dyke and 900 metres

from the designated dump area.

Environmentalists in South-west Scotand are more concerned about the

threat of an oil slick than they are about something sinister exploding

from its post-military grave.

Esso, British Gas, and Elf have all won licences for a total of 12

blocks in the North Irish Sea in the latest round awarded by the

Department of Trade and Industry.

Elf will home in on the Isle of Man. British Gas intends to start

drilling off the Rhinns at the beginning of October. Esso is considering

the results of seismic tests and may drill three wells between

Whitehaven and Wigtown next year.

Colmar Adriatic will almost certainly be used by Esso, and there are

fears of oil spillages from blowouts during refuelling.

Spokesmen for both British Gas and Esso emphasise that the greatest of

care has been taken to conduct major environmental surveys. They say

vessels will be at hand to deal with the ''extremely unlikely event of a

spillage''.

However, the Upper Solway is the second largest continuous area of

intertidal habitat in Britain and supports internationally important

numbers of wildfowl. Wigtown bay, which comes within Esso's orbit, holds

internationally important numbers of whooper swans, pink-footed geese

and greylag geese.

The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's Caerlaverock nature reserve further

into the Solway estuary but still at risk from any pollution, is

world-famous for its wintering wildfowl, notably the Spitsbergen

barnacle geese.

Its manager, John Docherty, said the WWT would have major concern if

oil or gas were extracted from an area so vulnerable to damage.

''Whatever the oil companies say, there would be environmental damage.

The Solway is relatively pristine, radioactive contamination

notwithstanding.

''There was a petition against the granting of any licences in the

Solway,'' Docherty said.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is alarmed at the

prospects of gas or oil exploitation off the Rhinns, where it has two

nature reserves.

One of them, at the Mull of Galloway, accommodates guillemots,

razorbills, fulmars, shags and rare black guillemots. Scare Rocks

reserve, moreover, has the distinction of containing Scotland's

southernmost gannetry; it supports more than 1000 pairs.

''We are very concerned about any gas or oil exploration. We would

rather the licences had not been issued, but now we will have to see to

it that it is done under the most stringent environmental conditions,''

said Chris Rollie, a conservation officer with the RSPB.

''The Upper Solway supports 120,000 waterfowl and any oil spillage

could have a catastrophic effect on them. They are sinking a well four

miles from a reserve and we are concerned.''

Rollie also fears that drilling material such as bentonite and baryte

will be at the mercy of the swift tides.

He said: ''It has been proven that material can travel as far as 750

kilometres. We do not want to see fish spawning grounds affected.''

There has been talk of ''black gold'' in the Solway Firth for 30

years, but it would take a gambler with deep pockets to wager heavily on

South-west Scotland enjoying an oil or gas bonanza on the scale of

Aberdeen.

Oil companies generally put the probability of striking it lucky, that

is finding hydrocarbons which are commercially viable to exploit, at one

in five.

However, British Gas cites odds of 10-1 of discovering retrievable gas

in the North Channel.

The odds on the Solway following the North Sea as an arena for major

mineral exploitation are considerably longer.

Gordon Mann, director of physical planning for Dumfries and Galloway

Regional Council, has thoroughly researched oil exploitation, and he

speaks soberly of any development in the Solway.

In November the oil hunt will be the theme of the annual conference

held by South West Forum, a networking mechanism for community and

voluntary organisations in Dumfries and Galloway, Clydesdale and Cumnock

and Doon Valley.

Mann, a former planning director of Shetland Islands Council, will be

the keynote speaker, but he said that there will be no Dallas-style

boomtime for South-west Scotland. He will warn delegates that the search

may generate no benefits for Dumfries and Galloway at all.

Helicopter facilities will probably be confined to Blackpool or

another northern English town with an airport, he predicts. The only

harbour in Galloway suitable as a supply port is Cairnryan, although the

jetties would require considerable investment.

''Gas is more probable than oil, the companies say. If they did want

to land it in Scotland, an onshore terminal would be built, and there

would be 200-300 temporary jobs and up to 1000 in construction, with 50

permanent jobs,'' said Mann.

''But North-west England is looking more probable as a supply or

servicing base because of the existing terminals at Heysham, Barrow in

Furness and Blackpool.''

There is no proven existence of oil or gas in the Solway basin, but

the geological conditions are conducive. The sea is in the same strata

as Morecambe Bay, which has the second largest gas field on Britain's

Continental shelf.

Last year more than 1500 seabirds died off the Galloway coast after a

tanker flushed its ballast tanks. Dead birds littered the area as well

as the coasts of Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man. Only time will

tell whether disaster can strike again.