Press comment on flaring 6th October 2020

“This is the second time during a severe storm this year that Mossmorran has had to resort to emergency flaring. Exxon has blamed it on a compressor component but has yet to come clean about what caused this failure.

If the plant can’t cope with Scottish weather, should it be operating at all?

If the issue is poor maintenance – as it was with the two boiler explosions in August 2019, shouldn’t SEPA & HSE be taking a much harder line?

Since Easter 2019 Exxon have fobbed off regulators and the Scottish Government with promises of extra investment. In the meantime local communities have had to pay the price with constant fear of extreme emergency flaring which is now occurring at regular intervals.

Locals have plainly had enough and don’t understand why Exxon are allowed to get away with it. SEPA had 400+ complaints and hundreds of new people have joined our group in the last few days.

We’re seeing more and more health complaints – headaches and breathing difficulties – associated with the flaring. SEPA is not qualified to address health complaints and it’s high time NHSFife became directly involved and Public Health Minister Joe FitzPatrick visited the area. He has had numerous invitations but has always refused to meet locals affected by Mossmorran.”