OIL giant Shell has been accused of breaking safety rules at the St Fergus gas terminal.
The Health and Safety Executive has acted over the methods used to lift material in areas near equipment filled with gas.
It is understood inspectors feared a major accident – and that not enough was being done to protect staff and the environment if there was an incident.
Last night, Shell said it had already acted on the warning and that the safety of its staff was a top priority.
Locals living around the site said they were confident in the way the terminal was run, despite the new safety fears. The 220-acre site near the coast north of Peterhead opened in the late 1970s.
It receives and processes about a fifth of the UK’s daily gas requirements then pumps supplies along a 45-mile pipeline to the Garlogie compressor.
According to the HSE, Shell had “failed to take all necessary measures to prevent a major accident and limit the consequences to persons and the environment”.
It issued an improvement notice to the company.
A Shell representative said: “We can confirm that we received an improvement notice at our St Fergus gas plant, relating to our lifting procedures.
“We immediately addressed the concerns within this notice, which has now been removed.
“We continue to work hard both offshore and onshore to minimise risks in our operations in order that we maintain a safe working environment for our workforce.”
It is the third HSE incident at the plant in five years – but locals in the village of St Fergus say they still feel safe next to the site.
George Clyne, owner of Clyne Autos, said: “I have lived here longer than the plant has been here and have never had any concerns.
“In fact, I was there fairly recently with the Rotary and we heard all about how they operate. I think their safety record is second to none.
“I’m sure that they have back-ups for everything and fail-safes for those back-ups. I’m not losing any sleep over it.”
Charles Stephen, a retired joiner from Hall Road in the village, said: “The what-if is always at the back of your mind, but I trust that they know what they are doing.”
Angela Newton, 48, a housewife from Newton Road, said: “We are an ex-forces family so we always have a plan of action in case anything major happened, although there are much worse things to live next door to.
“If this is the kind of thing they are doing, then that is a worry, but I’m sure HSE will make sure it gets sorted.”
The terminal has created tens of thousands of jobs in Buchan since it opened for business three decades ago.
The first gas was received at St Fergus in 1977 from the Frigg field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. The Queen inaugurated the terminal in May 1978.
St Fergus receives gas from more than 20 fields in the North Sea and, on average, processes about 20% of the UK’s daily gas requirements.