Published: Jul 19, 2006
SHELL’s safety record in the North Sea has been slammed in a Scottish sheriff’s report into the deaths of two workers on Brent Bravo, writes Martyn Wingrove.
The Anglo-Dutch oil major has been heavily criticised for defects on the 30-year-old production platform and operation failings to prevent the deaths in September 2003.
Sheriff Colin Harris said the deaths of Keith Moncrieff, 45, and Sean McCue, 22, in the platform’s utility leg may have been prevented if a temporary pipe repair was more effective and if the risks of working in the leg were properly assessed.
The 38-day fatal accident inquiry concluded that there was a failure to set out limits of working in that part of the platform and that the permit to work system, including a risk assessment, was not followed.
The two workers were inspecting a temporary repair patch on a pipeline when they were overcome by gas. An emergency shutdown valve failed during the inspection which allowed gas to travel into the pipeline and leg where they were working.
Shell was fined GBP900,000 ($1.6m) after admitting health and safety breaches. It has since improved procedures and training programmes after undertaking a thorough review of its North Sea offshore installations.
‘In the three years since the tragedy, we have worked hard to understand the root cause of why it happened and have put measures in place to prevent anything like this happening again,’ Shell said.
The sheriff’s report criticised Shell’s decision to restart production on the Brent Bravo platform in August 2003 in the knowledge that an emergency shutdown valve had failed.
It said there was a failure to carry out a robust risk assessment of the possible consequences of starting up the platform with a valve failure.
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
