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Pollution Scrapped North Sea oil rigs dumped in Indian and Bangladesh

SCRAPPED oil and gas-drilling platforms from the North Sea are being dumped in India and Bangladesh, where workers face life-threatening conditions dismantling them, maritime union RMT warned today.

It called for an end to the dumping of disused offshore equipment abroad and said the dismantling and recycling work could be carried out — safely — in Britain.

The union said three disused drilling platforms are being stored in Cromarty Firth in Scotland and have been sold to a company that plans to transport them to south Asia for disposal.

RMT said facilities exist in Scotland for the safe dismantling and recycling process.

General secretary Mick Cash said south Asian workers “are regularly killed and injured in highly dangerous and poorly protected conditions.”

He accused the government of failing to introduce a decommissioning process for the drilling platforms.

“This government seems incapable of getting a fair deal from the oil and gas industry and it must immediately commit to regulating the decommissioning sector in the interests of UK workers and the economy,” he said.

The government has handed huge amounts of cash to oil and gas bosses in the form of giant tax breaks.

RMT national secretary Steve Todd condemned the “unethical exploitation of poor coastal communities in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh when disposing of retired vessels.”

He said: “These rigs are in the Cromarty Firth and could quite easily be dismantled and recycled at local facilities in Scotland.

“Conservative ministers have questions to answer and RMT will continue to work to hold this chaotic government to account for its continued failure to protect offshore workers from unsustainable and unethical profiteering.”

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