The UK North Sea oil and gas industry has been urged not to lose focus on its health, safety and environmental performance amid fears that another major safety incident or spill could lead already fragile public support for the sector to collapse entirely.

Much of the concern is focusing on an increase in the number of the largest and most dangerous gas leaks in 2018 after several years of improving performance.

Other recent safety incidents, including the sudden evacuation of EnQuest’s ageing Thistle Alpha platform in October, have prompted observers to question if the industry is taking its eye off the ball.

Last week, senior managers from North Sea operators and the industry’s regulators gathered in Aberdeen for trade association Oil & Gas UK’s first ever health, safety and environment conference.

They heard that increasing public concern amid high-profile protests about climate change and fossil fuel use was making it more necessary than ever to maintain the highest possible safety and environmental performance.

Major releases

A serious deterioration could place the industry's social licence to operate at risk, they were told.

Four “major” releases — those posing the greatest risk to cause a loss of life if ignited — occurred in 2018, the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) said in its most recent annual report, published in August.

This is an increase from a single incident in 2017 and the highest level since 2013, when six occurred.

The regulator also indicated last week at least one additional leak, possibly two, could be assigned to the major category for that year once work to classify them is completed.

All of those major leaks were larger and more serious than the initial leak that led to the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988, still the world’s deadliest offshore disaster in which 167 men died.

The number of dangerous occurrences — incidents with the potential to cause injury or death — showed the first annual increase since 2013, rising from 217 in 2017 to 235 in 2018, according to the HSE report.

Steve Rae, executive director of the Step Change in Safety organisation and a Piper Alpha survivor, questioned if these statistics were “telltale signs that trouble may be brewing” and asked if industry has “perhaps been riding its luck”.

“If that statement makes us feel uncomfortable, then so be it. Are we playing Russian roulette? At best it tells us we remain vulnerable. At worst it tells us that we are blind to the facts,” he said.

“We all know that our next major safety incident which, god forbid, results in tragic loss, will receive a significant social and moral backlash from the media and the public. And so it should.

“If you think dealing with climate change groups is bad, try throwing in public backlash. We are vulnerable as an industry and we must focus... with a sense of urgency,” Rae said.

HSE chairman Martin Temple told delegates he was reminded of the speech he gave last year at a conference to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Piper Alpha.

“In my speech... I mentioned the estimated 250 million people worldwide who were following the dreadful events on Piper as they unfolded on that night in July of 1988, who would be questioning how safe it was to work in the oil and gas industry.

“Now, should such a dreadful event ever happen again on the same scale, the audience would be larger, the questioning more critical and sustained, and the answers demanded more punishing.

"Social and political support for the industry could plummet and its social licence to operate severely threatened.”

Wendy Kennedy, chief executive at the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment & Decommissioning, said: “If we have a major incident it will have ramifications right across the whole industry.”

Ray Riddoch, managing director of CNOOC Petroleum Europe, told delegates not to give in to a temptation to cut spending in areas that could affect safety performance.

“What I would say in the area of asset integrity, of inspection of your plant: Do not be tempted in challenging times to cut your budget for these items. There are certain line items in your opex budget that should never be cut," Riddoch said.

“We cannot afford to lose sight of process safety and hydrocarbon containment."

Unplanned leaks

In April last year, in the run-up to the 30th anniversary of the Piper Alpha disaster, HSE wrote to North Sea operators telling them a new approach to tackling unplanned leaks was needed.

Chris Flint, who heads the regulator’s Energy Division, ordered senior North Sea managers to review their companies’ operations, with a warning that some major leaks had come “perilously close to disaster”.

Flint told the conference: “You can take the view that we are at risk of going backwards in some areas. There are some worrying signs there.”

He said that while statistics can “tell a story” it was important that industry, operators and regulators have confidence in the “barriers” that are put in place to prevent major accidents.

“We must keep going back to the strength of the barriers,” Flint said. “Even if those stats show zero around major accident hazards it does not mean you are managing risk well.

“We know we are getting it right if our inspection and interventions with you... tell us collectively that the barriers are in place and they are working, and when we need them they will act.”

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