THE revelation that Shell UK have been fined £40,000 has led to a sharp response from the Mossmorran Action Group.

SEPA has revealed that Shell have been fined over £40,000 for under-reporting greenhouse gas emissions between 2013 and 2015 which is a failure to comply with condition 4 of a Greenhouse Gas Emissions Permit.

SEPA said that the operator did not surrender sufficient allowances to cover its annual reportable emissions from the installation at Fife NGL Plant by April 30 2013, April 30 2014 and April 30 2015.

The Action Group's James Glen said this week: "This fine illustrates the pitfalls of relying on self-reporting by Shell and ExxonMobil to monitor and regulate pollution from Mossmorran.

"Faulty equipment, which led to significant under-reporting of emissions for three years between 2013 and 2015, was only reported last year.

"Shell is trying to take credit for reporting the omission but given the heightened public scrutiny Mossmorran operators have been subject to in the last year, perhaps they had little choice".

Added Mr Glen: "In any case, their letter now to residents begs the question why communities weren’t told about this omission when Shell discovered it last year.

"As ever, Shell’s PR machine is seeking to control the narrative, since the fact of a £40,000 fine means the story can no longer be kept from public view.

"Shell is also playing down the amount of pollution which their inaccurate annual figures have hidden. The only figure they give is 0.5% of 'total plant volumes for the period' without specifying whether volumes refers to fuel processed or total emissions. If it’s emissions, then they failed to report several thousands of tonnes of pollutants.

"How many other things have the operators failed to report? After all, the plant is ageing and becoming ever more prone to breakdown, so that emergency flaring is now a regular occurrence.

"Community trust in what Shell and Exxon/Mobil say is zero".

Mr Glen concluded: "Trust will not be restored without an independent investigation into all the impacts from Mossmorran, independent constant real-time monitoring of air quality and beefed up regulation which does not take the operators at their word".