Old oil rigs found in deadly yard

An oil company with a base in Scotland has been accused of profiting from a deadly industry after two of its oil rigs ended up being scrapped on a beach in India.

A BBC Disclosure production released this week reveals the harm caused by shipbreaking activities in Alang, India, as well as the effort of local officials' and leading oil and gas companies' efforts to cover up their unlawful practices.

The BBC investigation focuses on the attempt to illegally export a trio of floating rigs full of asbestos and mercury from the Scottish Cromarty Firth.

Rigs from Diamond Offshore, a drilling company with major bases in Aberdeen and the United States, are said to have ended up in shipbreaking yards in Alang-sites that campaigners claim have led to the deaths of 137 people and caused "massive" damage to the environment.

Diamond Off shore sold five rigs to another company, Global Marketing Systems, or GMS, in 2017. GMS is said to have sold on two rigs to the controversial Alang shipbreaking yards, while the other three have been detained in the Cromarty Firth by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) because it believed they were also bound for India.

British and international law prevents the movement of waste from the United Kingdom to developing countries.

The NGO Shipbreaking Platform, which campaigns for clean and safe ship recycling, alerted SEPA in January 2018 that the units were likely to end up on a South Asian beach for dirty and dangerous scrapping in breach of European and international environmental law.

SEPA Chief Executive Terry A'Hearn told the BBC that companies such as Diamond Off shore had a "duty of care under the law" to make sure that they're giving their material to someone who's going to be doing the right thing with it".

Companies seeking to sell their retired ships or rigs often use cash buyers, or "middlemen", such as GMS-which has been accused of flouting international laws by selling to shipbreaking yards with poor safety records in south Asia.

BBC Disclosure tracked down one of Diamond Off shore's old rigs, the Ocean Alliance, in Alang and found that it had been sold on by GMS to the Hariyana shipbreaking yard, where workers say they are only paid about 41 cents an hour. The Hariyana website says it operates a "green recycling policy" and that workers' safety is a priority.

Workers' interviews and undercover footage obtained by BBC at the Indian shipbreaking yard where the Ocean Alliance was taken apart highlight breaches of labor rights, disregard for even the most basic health and safety standards, and extremely polluting practices.

"Companies sell their end-of-life tonnage to the beaching yards as that is where they can make the highest profit. But these are profits made on the back of exploited workers and fragile ecosystems," said Ingvild Jenssen, executive director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.