ESG raises questions over LNG transfer

The Environmental Safety Group said commercial interests were prioritised in the recent LNG ship to ship transfer that took place in Gibraltar waters last week.

In doing so, the ESG rejected statements from the Gibraltar Government and the Gibraltar Port Authority that safety issues were paramount.

It said: “We consider that commercial interests were prioritised on this occasion to enable an unlicensed procedure to take place.”

“Our group has always advocated for highest standards and best practice to be applied to all industrial activity and would expect this LNG transaction, having satisfied the GPA, to have complied with such standards.”

“However, we would be most interested to know what protocols and safety standards were applied and how these compare to a fully licensed operation,” the group said.

The ESG said it believes that the best way of ensuring industry is compliant to highest standards is for all operations to be carried out under full and transparent licensed agreement and calls for all future transactions to follow these rules.