$400k fines follow LPG spill

Three gas companies have been fined more than $400,000 for putting workers at risk on the Kupe Production Station.

In November 2016 about 140 litres of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) discharged unexpectedly from a trailer-mounted calibrating unit after a lever was turned the wrong way at the production site near Manaia.

All the personnel and vehicles in the loading bay were engulfed, WorkSafe said. A person suffered cold burns to the leg and was taken to hospital, and another received a head injury.

A WorkSafe investigation found the three companies to have breached health and safety legislation. It identified several failings, including failure to adequately secure a valve on the calibrating unit, and that none of the companies had adequately managed the health and safety of their or other workers that day.

First Gas Ltd, Gas Services Ltd and Beach Energy NZ (Kupe) Ltd, all pleaded guilty at an earlier appearance to charges relating to the health and safety of workers or other persons.

At a sentencing hearing at the New Plymouth District Court yesterday, WorkSafe prosecutor Shane Elliot said First Gas and Gas Services had a ‘‘complicated’’ contractual structure.

‘‘One was contractually responsible but then, on the other hand, First Gas had a lot of practical control,’’ he told the court.

All companies offered formal apologies to those involved through their counsel.

Defense for Beach Energy, Nick Logan, said the valve was the basis of the incident, and if two long-term workers had not noticed it was the wrong way around, ‘‘someone from Beach, who sees it once a year, wasn’t likely to have made a difference or spotted that’’.

First Gas and Gas Services also acknowledged there had been shortcomings.

Judge Garry Barkle suppressed the names of the six people involved in the incident.

But in a statement, the woman who received cold burns said the discharge had had a ‘‘huge’’ impact. ‘‘She thought she could have died,’’ Barkle said in his oral decision. ‘‘She simply wants to forget what took place.’’

The risks associated with an uncontrolled release of LPG were serious and well known, he said.

However, although the injuries were relatively minor, the judge also considered the risk, though remote, that the substance could have ignited.

WorkSafe sought total costs of $27,204.40, to be split equally by the defendants.

Judge Barkle awarded total costs of $17,000.

Taking into account mitigating factors including cooperation and remedial steps, total costs for Gas Services and Beach Energy came to $226,125, including costs of $5000 and reparation of $6000.

First Gas was ordered to pay $198,250 including costs of $5000 and reparation of $5000.