HSE issues rig alert

News | HSW
15.12.2007

The HSE has warned oil firms that they must do more to improve safety offshore. This stark message follows a three-year investigation into asset integrity in the industry. Specialist inspectors from the HSE's offshore division, who visited nearly 100 installations, found a majority of rigs were in poor repair and/or in breach of safety regulations. The investigators say some senior managers are not prioritising maintenance and fail to understand the role of asset integrity in hazard risk control.

Launching the investigation findings, known as the KP3 report (available at www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/kp3.pdf), Health and Safety Commission chair Judith Hackitt acknowledged the sector's cooperation during the investigation, but said there "can be no mistaking our message" to board directors that there is still much more to do.

The report covers installations such as fixed and mobile drilling rigs, storage facilities and offloading ships, and focuses on management of safety-critical elements of systems to control major accident hazards. It found operators could not always accurately assess the state of their plant because complex monitoring equipment was defective. It concludes the sector can make significant improvements without major capital outlay, but through better planning, improved training and clearly stating performance standards in testing and maintenance routines, as well as through sharing best practice, which is not common at present.

"Our advice to the industry is clear," said Ian Whewell, HSE offshore division head. "When looking at and testing systems and procedures on installations, companies must ensure that all those parts that need to work together to prevent a major incident do precisely that." Last month Whewell accused some oil businesses of failing to live up to their commitments in an offshore industry accident-reduction pledge (see Oil firms use pledge as "fig leaf").

Highlighting the industry's £3 billion spend on asset maintenance in the last three years, Malcolm Webb, chief executive of industry body Oil & Gas UK, acknowledged that the report showed there is work "still to be done and that in some areas we are not yet where we need to be".

Scotland's first minister Alex Salmond responded to the report by calling for regulatory control of North Sea oil and gas operations to be handed over to the Scottish government. The demand was firmly rejected by the prime minister Gordon Brown.

Serious fire evacuates Thistle Alpha

Within days of the launch of the HSE's K3 report, more than 100 workers on the Thistle Alpha platform, 160km off the coast of Shetland, were evacuated to escape a serious fire. The rig had received several enforcement notices in previous years and had last been inspected by the HSE in November. No one was injured in the fire, which broke out on 25 November, and workers returned to the rig, operated by Petrofac, in the days after. HSE chief Geoffrey Podger said that despite the lack of casualties, if an HSE investigation finds safety lapses, the operators could be prosecuted.