Moray councillors yesterday approved a new fuel transfer charge at the region’s main port to boost the local authority’s dwindling coffers.
The annual income at Buckie Harbour is currently less than £300,000.
The levy of £2 per tonne will be added to harbour charges for vessels bringing in fuel from the sea which is transferred to road tankers for use by oil companies.
It is the latest cash-generating initiative proposed by the council after learning that its six ports — Buckie, Burghead, Findochty, Portknockie and Cullen — were operating at a collective loss of about £135,000.
A strategy has been launched to make all six ports self-sufficient by 2020, and is expected to offset that deficit by about £100,000 every year.
Transportation manager Nicola Moss said: “We have carried out a trial with one interested customer to ensure it is safe, which is a priority, and that it is feasible.”
Officers estimate the current market will allow for the transfer of over 50,000 tonnes of fuel per annum at Buckie Harbour.
The rate to transfer fuel at Aberdeen harbour is £1.94 per tonne while Scrabster harbour in the far north charge £1.90 per tonne.
Buckie councillor George McDonald said: “It was just at October’s economic development and infrastructure committee I believe that we tried to set out a five year programme to make the harbours break even. We’ve achieved that in one month, so that’s not a bad achievement — if the revenues come in as predicted here.
“The harbours are an asset to Moray and hopefully we get a lot more out of them.”
Mr McDonald queried whether the charges would be rolled out to other viable commercial ports like Burghead.
Ms Moss added: “At the moment, Buckie is the only harbour where we believe it is currently safe to undertake that activity, and there’s an interested customer there.
“But if an interested customer wanted to use another harbour and it was safe across other harbours, then, yes, it will be .”
Economic development and infrastructure chairman John Cowe added: “This is great news for Buckie and great news for Moray’s harbours.
“It goes a long way to actually getting back onto an even keel with the cost of running these harbours.”
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