RSPB Scotland has called on oil giant Shell to come clean over the recent spill in the North Sea last week and to open a clear dialogue to limit any damage caused.

Stuart Housden, Director of RSPB Scotland said: “Communication and sharing knowledge is key at this stage, RSPB Scotland is ready and willing to offer its advice on how best to protect seabirds at risk, but we cannot do this without monitoring by the relevant agencies and sharing the details of what this monitoring has shown.”

The charity has demanded that governments step up their examination of regulation to prevent more spills happening.

Mr Houseden said: “Prevention will always be better than cure so the investigation must reassure the public that environment regulations are both adequate and vigorously enforced and that North Sea installations are maintained to the very highest standards. We also look to the forthcoming Scottish National Marine Plan to commit all relevant authorities, both UK and Scottish, to the actions necessary to ensure this is the case.”

The Gannet Alpha station is about 180km east of Aberdeen and despite insisting the coast would be safe from oil washing up, Shell have yet to release full details of the amount spilt. They estimate the area of the sea surface affected to be about 31km by 4.3km at its widest point.