PETROCHEMICAL firms have still to comply with safety regulations designed to prevent explosions and fires introduced after the Buncefield fuel depot disaster four years ago.
The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) discovered nine Scottish oil depots, including NuStar and Ineos in Grangemouth, have not fully complied with safety recommendations made after the explosion
Reports made public this week reveal ina
dequate safety measures and a "high" risk of a major environmental accident if a leak occurs.
One of the sites classed as high risk was NuStar at Grangemouth Docks. The premises, where high and low flash petroleum products and chemicals are stored, was found to be in a poor condition.
David McLoughlin, managing director of NuStar Terminals Ltd, said: "Safety and environmental excellence are our top priorities and we have an excellent health, safety and environmental record at our Grangemouth terminal.
"There has not been an environmental spill at the facility in over 10 years and there hasn't been a lost-time injury in nearly five years. We are, of course, planning to comply with SEPA's new policy and we have already submitted improvement plans to the agency."
The Buncefield disaster, which left 40 people injured and caused millions of pounds worth of damage, was caused by fuel overflowing from a storage tank. SEPA made a number of safety recommendations to similar sites regarding containment.
However, some of the sites SEPA investigated last year were found to have cracks and gaps in containment walls and there were also concerns about the capacity of containment units should primary tanks fail.
Falkirk East MSP Cathy Peattie, MSP for Falkirk East, said she would be concerned if NuStar and Ineos had not invested enough in safety measures and upgrading.
However, Mr McLoughlin said since NuStar took over the Grangemouth terminal in 2005 they had made significant investments in safety systems and equipment.
And Ineos, which was classed as a "medium" risk by SEPA, said the company had made significant changes to the site and remains committed to operating it safely.
A spokesman said: "We operate our sites at Finnart and Grangemouth to high standards of health and safety. Over the last five years there has been, and continues to be, an on-going commitment to this, through significant investment in the training of people and in the infrastructure at both sites, ensuring we remain in compliance with new and emerging standards and employ highly trained personnel.
"This investment has seen the installation of state-of-the-art instruments and control systems as well as storage tank and pipework inspection and remediation. In line with all other similar sites in the UK, we have submitted our plans to comply with the new standards and policies which have been jointly developed as an outcome from the Buncefield report.
"We regularly meet with the regulator and have recently shared with them the scope and timeline of our upgrade programme which closely follows our investment plan for the sites. Our plans, progress and priorities have always been acceptable to the Regulator."
The spokesman added that in some cases it is the standards set by Ineos that have been adopted as the industry standard.
