SERIOUS NORTH SEA OIL AND GAS SPILLS-EVERY WEEK

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2011 :: RMTnews 24 Leaked documents have revealed that serious spills of oil and gas from offshore North Sea platforms are occurring at the rate of one a week, undermining oil companies' claims to be doing everything possible to improve the safety of rigs. Documents obtained by The Guardian newspaper reveal leaks voluntarily declared by the oil companies to the safety regulator, the Health and Safety Executive(HSE), in a database set up after the Piper Alpha disaster of 6 July 1988 which killed 167 workers. RMT offshore organiser Jake Molloy welcomed the "naming and shaming" of offenders and called for ‘rogue operators’ to be prosecuted. "We need the veil of secrecy and anonymity lifted. "Hiding behind a clause in the Health and Safety at Work Act that makes releasing such material commercially sensitive does not serve the industry well. "We have learned lessons from Piper Alpha and I believe the likelihood of another Piper is remote as long as we don't have rogue operators prepared to take chances," he said. Shell has emerged as one of the top offenders despite promising to clean up its act five years ago after a large accident in which two oil workers died. They reveal for the first time the names of companies that have caused more than 100 potentially lethal and largely unpublicised oil and gas spills in the North Sea in 2009 and 2010. The documents, released under freedom of information legislation, record leaks classed by the regulator as "major" or "significant", which, if ignited, could cause many deaths. The HSE documents also undermine claims by the major oil companies that last year's Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 workers was unlikely to ever happen to them. Jake Molloy said that Deepwater Horizon showed that "even the most up-to-date, cutting-edge safety technology can go wrong if it is not maintained properly and not operated by competent people. "We have been very lucky in the UK that we have not had another major incident with multiple fatalities. “We have come very close on several occasions, very, very close. “It is more luck than good management in some cases and some operators don't give a damn. “Because of the high price of oil, they are cutting corners and some of them are overdue for prosecution," he said. The two rigs with the most frequent oil spills are owned by Shell and the French conglomerate Total, yet Shell regularly claim in public that safety is their most important commitment. The Shell-run platform responsible for the most spills, Brent Charlie, first began pumping oil in 1976 from its location 115 miles north-east of Scotland. The documents record seven leaks on it over the two-year period, with the worst happening on 26 April last year when four tonnes of leaked gas from one of its columns led to a shutdown of production. On another occasion, on September 30 2009, safety inspectors ordered Shell to stop producing oil from Brent Charlie after gas leaked from its ventilation system. The HSE has formally threatened to close down some operations on Brent Charlie within two weeks over undisclosed safety issues. Since January this year, Shell has stopped exporting oil from the rig and three others in the Brent oilfield as the company struggles to put right safety problems. Critics say the oldest rigs, built in the 70s when oil was found in the North Sea, are the most dangerous and fear safety is neglected as the platforms come to the end of their productive commercial life. Shell came under intense criticism over its safety record in 2006 when a judge ruled that it could have prevented the deaths of two men if it had properly repaired a hole in a corroding pipeline on a platform in the Brent field. In the same year, one of Shell's own safety consultants, Bill Campbell, alleged that safety procedures in the North Sea had been ignored for years. Shell's then chief executive, Jereon van der Veer, admitted in a private email at the time that the company had a second-rate safety record and pledged to spend substantial sums of money to improve it. Other major oil companies which are high in the spills league include the Danish conglomerate Maersk and Canadian firm Talisman, which both have a rig with five leaks. Four spills came from a rig known as Mungo Etap, which is owned by BP. Whistleblowers also told The Guardian newspaper that the list of spills recorded in the documents is the tip of the iceberg. Other accidents are kept quiet because workers fear they cannot report them in case they lose their jobs. One said that although everyone is formally told to report anything that goes wrong, staff adhere to an informal code to remain silent to avoid a halt in drilling that loses money for the companies. The disclosures have provoked criticism of the government over its claims that regulation of the oil industry in the North Sea is one of the toughest in the world. Energy secretary Chris Huhne, a Lib Dem MP, claimed earlier this year that the UK's safety and environmental regime was "one of the most robust in the world". But Labour MP for Aberdeen North Frank Doran said that Chris Huhne needed to have a rethink. “There is a continuing problem, of particularly gas leakages, and that is a sign that the infrastructure in the North Sea is ageing and that maintenance and investment is still not sufficient to ensure the safety of offshore workers. “There is still a long way to go,” he said. SERIOUS NORTH SEA OIL AND GAS SPILLS-EVERY WEEK Union calls for prosecutions following more than 100 potentially lethal North Sea platform oil and gas spills in two years