Royal Dutch Shell Group .com Rotating Header Image

Oil companies warned on North Sea accidents

MESSAGE FROM BILL CAMPBELL, RETIRED GROUP HSE AUDITOR, SHELL INTERNATIONAL

John

You may be interested in this, things are not getting better offshore and the figs for 2009/10 exclude the helicopter incident.

What should concerns offshore workers is that for example the operators or installations who are having the increase in gas releases are not highlighted in the HSE report.  It appears a fundamental weakness that you can find out how your local hospital is performing but not how the installation your friends or family are employed on is performing.  Despite pressure to provide specific data the HSE still produces general data masking from public scrutiny the worst offenders.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2010/hse-offshorestats.htm

RELATED DAILY TELEGRAPH ARTICLE

North Sea oil and gas companies have been taken to task about their safety record after a sharp increase in accidents to workers and oil and gas leaks from offshore installations.

By Roland Gribben
Published: 6:30AM BST 24 Aug 2010

Steve Walker, head of the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) offshore division, has bluntly told companies that their health and safety record covering 27,000 workers is “simply not good enough.”

He said: “The industry has shown it can do better and it must do in future.”

Figures released on Tuesday by the HSE show that while there were no fatalities in the offshore operations it regulates for the third year in a row last year, the number of major injury cases rose from 30 in 2008-09 to 50.

The deaths of 16 in a helicopter crash and a fatality involving a diving support vessel are not covered by the HSE figures but the report says the combined fatal and major injury rate almost doubled to 192 per 100,000 workers compared with 106 in 2008-09.

Mr Walker also expresses concern at the increase from 61 to 85 in the number of incidents involving a major and significant escape of oil and gas that could have led to a major incident.

He said: “This is a key indicator or how well the offshore industry is managing its major accident potential and it really must up its game to identify and rectify the root causes of such events.”

HSE, which is monitoring the Gulf of Mexico oil leak to assess North Sea implications, has tightened inspections of offshore installations because more of them have exceeded their design life. Oil and Gas UK, the organisation representing the companies, said the industry “will now reflect on these statistics and seek a way forward by identifying the things which we can do better.”

SOURCE ARTICLE

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.

Comments are closed.