‘Eye off the ball’ in terms of safety on oil platforms

Rigs:

A union boss has said “the eye is being taken off the ball” after a pair of fires took place in one day on separate North Sea platforms.

On Monday a worker was evacuated from the Taqaoperated Tern Alpha after sustaining an arm injury.

And on the same day two casualties were airlifted from EnQuest’s Heather Alpha installation following a separate fire.

Both firms said they were quickly extinguished and that investigations are under way into the respective causes of the incidents.

The incidents come on the heels of a report from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in August, showing an increase in dangerous occurrences in the UK sector last year compared to 2017.

There were 235 incidents with potential to cause serious injury or death in 2018, up from 217 the year before, while there were four “major” oil and gas releases.

John Boland, regional officer of Unite the union, said: “We get the feeling that the eye is being taken off the ball a little bit as far as safety is concerned.

“We will be raising this with the Health and Safety Executive as well but it is concerning that we are seeing an increase in these incidents.

“We’ve raised concerns recently that health and safety offshore is getting worse.

“We had the HSE report a few months ago which showed there was an increase in incidents and an increase in gas releases as well.”

Mr Boland added: “Our members that contacted us on the Heather Alpha were pretty alarmed.

“Nobody wants to get in the situation where you have a major incident happening.”

Both Taqa and EnQuest said all crew members were accounted for following the incidents.

Both companies described the incidents as “small fires” but Mr Boland said that doesn’t detract from the seriousness of the situation.

BLAZE: The Taqa-operated Tern Alpha platform