State Papers: Whiddy Island oil terminal owners agreed pollution payments with Cork fishing co-op
Killing The French And Jetty Richard Caught 8, On Gulf Island Oil Operated 50 Tanker, Fire The Exploded Owned Terminal Mills People At Betelgeuse, Photo: On Oil January Whiddy 1979,
Members of a fishing co-op in Bantry, Co Cork, were to receive interim payments up to a maximum of £80,000 for every incident of pollution damage under a confidential agreement reached in 1990 with the operator and owner of the oil terminal at Whiddy Island in Cork.
The agreement arose out of concern of local fishermen in Bantry Bay about the resumption of activity at the oil terminal after the French-owned oil tanker, Betelgeuse, caught fire and exploded at the Gulf Oil-operated terminal jetty on Whiddy Island on January 8, 1979.
The explosion and resulting inferno killed 50 people (42 French, seven Irish and one British national), while only 27 bodies were ever found.
State files released by the National Archives show the Irish National Petroleum Corporation and Bantry Terminals Limited agreed to compensate the Bantry Bay Fish Farming Co-Operative Society with interim payments to cover any immediate loss that might result from any pollution linked to the terminal.
The agreement stipulated that the payments would be made ex-gratia and without any admission of liability.
The Bantry fishermen warned they would take legal action to prevent any docking or unloading of oil at Whiddy Island unless all legal requirements had been complied with.
Solicitors for various groups of fishermen from Bantry had expressed concern about reports in national newspapers of comments made by the Minister for Energy, Bobby Molloy, about plans for the berthing of one or more large oil tankers at the terminal on Whiddy Island.
The fishermen said they were “greatly alarmed and concerned” about proposals for the resumption of oil deliveries to Whiddy Island.
In a letter to INPC and Bantry Terminals in September 1990, their solicitor said they were particularly concerned because as far as they knew the damage to the terminal had never been repaired.
“The storage tank facilities on Whiddy Island have been largely mothballed and it is our clients’ belief that they have deteriorated since 1979,” said solicitor, Joe Noonan.