The UK’s Health & Safety Executive has issued an enforcement notice to Apache following an inspection program on the company’s Forties Delta platform in the central North Sea.
Inspectors determined that Apache had failed to fully consider human factors in its plans to prevent a fire and explosion on the platform in the North Sea.
Mary Marshall, a principal specialist inspector at HSE, said, “Offshore companies need to understand and evaluate where and how these safety critical tasks might be vulnerable to human error. Safety Critical Task Analysis (SCTA) is an established, structured process that will help companies demonstrate that these tasks can be carried out safely, reliably and that the risks are managed to as low as reasonably practicable. This will include consideration of the design of the equipment, details of the tasks and the factors which support task performance.”
Typical failings that HSE has identified among operators are a lack of sustained commitment and progress with the work, and inconsistencies in the quality of assessments.
The Forties Delta inspection found that Apache had failed to take appropriate measures to prevent the uncontrolled release of flammable or explosive substances during main oil line pig launcher operations.
The company has until Nov. 9 to comply with the improvement notice.
