OPINION: Only luck, yet again, appears to have stopped workers from getting injured or killed after a serious North Sea gas leak.

Marathon Oil was fined £1.16 million ($1.48 million) at Aberdeen Sheriff Court after a catastrophic pipework rupture led to a high-pressure gas blast on the Brae Alpha platform as more than 100 workers gathered in the accommodation block for their 2015 Boxing Day meal.

More than 2000 kilogrammes of highly pressurised methane escaped after pipework corroded under insulation. No one was hurt, but inspectors said if anyone had been in the vicinity they would almost certainly have died.

Jake Molloy, regional organiser of the RMT union in Aberdeen, remembers 1989, when a similar blast ripped through Shell’s Brent Delta platform as 180 workers gathered for a New Year’s Day dinner.

At Brent Delta, no charges or prosecutions followed. Some managers were suspended over a decision to give workers two cans of beer and some wine with their festive meal. It was claimed this played a role in the blast, even though investigations found no link.

Times have no doubt changed. The Brae A blast has led to a prosecution and a substantial fine. But, as Molloy points out, some events occur that are worryingly familiar.

“The sheer luck of two similar events occurring at times when workers were away from the work site is just that — sheer luck,” he says.

It should act as a reminder that no matter how much progress industry thinks it has made, safety should never slip down the agenda.

(This is an Upstream opinion article.)

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