Follow the money…….we have (and were not finished yet). Here’s the long and short of it – the Cromarty Firth Port Authority are undercutting their rivals. Nothing new or indeed wrong with that. Except when it is less than a third of the price of your rivals and you are able to offer that priced reduction while undertaking an extremely dangerous and risk prone activity by completely cutting out shore-based expertise that allows the process to be undertaken safely. This presents not only an unacceptable risk to the environment but uses the Port’s status to disadvantage its stakeholders – both the Nigg oil terminal, the local community and other “regional businesses”. By regional businesses I refer to the other locations in Scotland currently undertaking STS that will lose this work because of this outrageous move. Specifically the staff at Sullom Voe oil terminal. This proposal in the Cromarty Firth will kill their business and negatively impact the economy of Shetland. We compared charges at Sullom Voe and the CFPA’s proposed charges looking at the cost for three tankers transferring 120,000 tonnes of oil at Sullom Voe and in the Cromarty Firth. At Sullom Voe the cost would be £49,792, while in the Cromarty Firth it would be £15,120. Shetland Islands Council, operators of Sullom Voe through their role as harbour authority and the CFPA have confirmed to the Herald that these figures are accurate.
No doubt by offering STS cheaply, the CFPA will be able to cross-sell offerings made by its part privately owned subsidiary Port of Cromarty Firth Services at the expense of local operators. This along with the assertion made by Global that unfair port charges will cause job losses (see: http://www.ross-shirejournal.co.uk/News/Nigg-jobs-on-line-as-unaccountable-port-accused-of-unfair-charge-hike-10122016.htm) paints a picture of an aggressive and out of control Port Authority. This is a national disgrace and is surely not an appropriate modus operandi for a Scottish Trust Port. We call on the Scottish Government to intervene before this goes any further. We call upon the Port Authority to withdraw this application or RESIGN.
In your articles you have made numerous references to this CFPA subsidiary Port of Cromarty Firth Services. Can we get to the bottom this company also? Who owns it? Who are the other shareholders? How does it fit in the overall structure of the CFPA and the other 11 subsidiaries you say they own? Don’t we have a right to know. I can’t find any of this in their annual report.
Edward Murray, a quick Google reveals the CEO is Bob Buskie And Secretary is Angus McMaster both of who also sit on the CFPA board.
CFPA have 50% of the shares and Martin Brayshaw 25% and Coillemore Ltd (owned by Mr and Mrs Maclellan of Invergordon) the other 25%
Should be banned forthwith.
this is beyond laughable. kill the business in Shetland
Are you aware of Shetlands oil facility and how much oil runs via this terminal
these remarks you make are shocking and soo far off the mark.
makes your group look stupid and quite frankly desperate
To clarify – not kill the Shetland oil business but their Ship to Ship oil transfer business – look at the figures – these have been verified by both CFPA and Shetland Island Council – the CFPA are proposing charges to undertake STS transfers for less than one third the cost of doing the same operation in Shetland. In these days of oil industry cost-cutting it surely must be a very attractive proposition to come to the Cromarty firth. We stand by the remarks – it is simple economics.
Who are the shareholders of CFPA? We need to be vigilant and expose allegiances of decision makers.
There are no shareholders of the CFPA – they are responsible to their self-appointed board and to their stakeholders.
Interesting thatthe CFPA identify the oil spill response equipment at Nigg Terminal being part of their response plan. I doubt they have notified Repsol, the terminal owner, who are obviously going to loose out from this.
The other aspect of that is the equipment is not suitable for deployment outside the Souters.
Interesting comments.