Charity says new exploration licences could lead to drilling a few miles from internationally important seabird colonies

This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

Important wildlife sites for seabirds such as puffins could be hit if an oil spill occurred in areas being considered for new fossil fuel exploration off the UK coast, conservationists have warned.

The RSPB is concerned that the latest round of exploration licences could lead to full-scale drilling and extraction of oil and gas as little as a few miles from internationally important seabird colonies.

Any oil spills near designated special protection areas and special areas of conservation could pose an "untenable" risk, it said. And the increased air and sea traffic and new pipelines and infrastructure could disturb the colonies.

The warning came as a consultation on the latest round of oil and gas licensing closed, and follows the Shell oil spill in the North Sea.

Stuart Housden, director of RSPB Scotland, said: "This process will result in exploration licences, allowing companies to go out looking for oil and gas. If they are successful, that is highly likely to lead to full-scale drilling and exploitation.

"We have seen off the coast of Aberdeenshire that no matter how carefully drilling is done there is always the risk of an oil spill. In [the Shell] case, the spill happened far away from any vulnerable wildlife colonies, but just imagine if that oil was washing ashore at a globally important puffin colony. These risks are real, and are clearly untenable."

Protected areas the RSPB is concerned about include:

• Rathlin Island, Northern Ireland, which is home to puffins, razorbills and kittiwakes.

• Western Solent and west towards Portland, home to breeding seabirds including terns and gulls and wintering waterbirds such as geese, ducks and waders.

• Liverpool Bay, where thousands of common scoters and hundreds of red-throated divers spend the winter.

• Flamborough and Bempton cliffs, Yorkshire, home to the only mainland breeding colony of gannets in the UK, as well as seabirds such as kittiwakes and auks.

• Shetland and Orkney, particularly Foula, west Westray and Papa Westray, where great and Arctic skuas are found, along with Europe's largest concentrations of cliff-breeding seabirds such as guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and fulmars.

• East Caithness cliffs and Troup, Pennan and Lion's Heads, Scotland, which have internationally important numbers of guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and fulmars.