LOCAL MP Katy Clark has poured cold water on speculation that the Three Towns lost out on a Clyde oil boom as a result of a cover up – and accused the Yes campaign of ‘raising false hopes’.

The Labour MP for Ayrshire and Arran said she had spoken to industry experts and independent academic specialists who have told her there is no reason to believe that there are currently commercially exploitable oil reserves in the Firth of Clyde.

Ms Clark told the Herald: “The oil industry has been exploring the Clyde waters for oil over the past 40 years with to date little success.

“For some years in the 1980s BP did have a licence to explore the waters south of Arran but relinquished its licence in 1988 after concluding that there was no reason to continue exploration.

“It may be that there is shale gas in the area but this possibility has not been properly explored.

“I am opposed to Trident and if I thought it was true that Trident had blocked exploration from taking place I would be horrified.

“Trident however is a continuous at sea submarine which goes all over the world and into the most difficult seas and marine environments.

“It is very difficult to believe that oil operation off the west coast would interfere with its operation.

“It is also impossible to believe that the multinational oil companies, with the power and influence which they hold, would quietly allow the Ministry of Defence to prevent them from exploring an area which they believed they would be likely to make billions of pounds in profit without doing everything in their power to make Government reconsider.” “It appears these claims are based on rumour and hearsay.

"The more these claims are scrutinised the less credible they appear.

“I am very disappointed that the Yes campaign are making promises about the benefits which local oil revenues will bring to the people of Ardrossan when the reality is that there is no substantial evidence that sufficient quantities of oil actually exist in the area.

“To raise false hopes in this way is deeply irresponsible and completely unacceptable.” She was backed by David MacDonald, Professor of Petroleum Geology at the University of Aberdeen, He said: “After a series of attempts to inflate Scotland’s potential reserves of oil and gas, this latest conspiracy theory about submarine movements in the Clyde simply doesn’t stack up.

“There is no evidence to suggest that submarine movements and other MoD activity has impeded Scotland’s access to its oil reserves, in the Clyde or anywhere else.

“There has been exploration in the Clyde, but oil companies have decided that any reserves are either too small or to technically challenging to be economic.

“The reason that there has not been widespread extraction on the West Coast is because there has not been the business case for it.

"The notion that the MoD’s activities are the cause is fanciful.” The professor added: “There are now a number of conspiracy theories being peddled about Scotland’s oil and gas reserves – from secret oil fields, to submarine cover ups, to fracking bonanzas.

“None of them have any basis in evidence and all of them degrade the quality of Scotland’s debate.”