Gilmerton Core Store

That the Parliament notes with extreme concern the decision by the British Geological Survey (BGS) to close the national offshore oil and gas core storage facility at Gilmerton in Edinburgh as part of plans to centralise all hydrocarbon storage to Keyworth near Nottingham; further considers that, if the closure goes ahead, Scotland will lose a world-leading facility used by hundreds of students and oil industry experts a year and highly valued by universities, the oil industry and other stakeholders alike; further understands that the announcement of the decision was made in August 2009, a month before the consultant report into the proposed move was finalised or published; regrets the apparent lack of consultation with geoscientists and academic and oil industry stakeholders before the decision was taken; questions the business case on which the planned move to Keyworth is based, particularly in relation to the transport costs required to safely transport the fragile hydrocarbon cores, the estimated sale value of the Gilmerton site and the future annual cost of sending Scottish university students to Keyworth to study the hydrocarbon cores; rejects assertions that the Edinburgh facility is not fit-for-purpose and understands that it has an impeccable health and safety record and enough spare storage capacity for several decades, and welcomes the National Audit Office’s ongoing costs and value-for-money audit of these proposals.