Workers Unions Brand Million Pound Penalty Against Total As "Wholly Inadequate"

by Benson Agoha | Health Safety

* Total's Elgin Deep Sea Platform at the North Sea.
(Credit: via Wiki).

RMT says "slap on the wrist" £1.1million Total fine over North Sea safety failures "wholly inadequate"

RMT Worker's Union has branded as "wholly inadequate", the penalty recently imposed   against Total for North Sea Safety failures.

In a statement, made available to Woolwich Online, RMT said the fine, which it branded as a "slap on the wrist" was slammed on the oil giant after it admitted offshore installation regulation failings at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.

The total fine of £1.125m was imposed on Total for serious safety failings that caused one of the biggest ever gas leaks in the North Sea when the Elgin platform, 150 miles east of Aberdeen, was evacuated in March 2012, after the gas began leaking.

It took 51 days to stop the leak after heavy mud was pumped into the well and the leak eventually capped off with cement plugs.

Today, Mick Cash (right), RMT General Secretary said in a statement that the Workers Union was not pleased with the fine.

“For a giant global player like Total this fine can be written off as petty cash and a minor inconvenience and does nothing to hold the senior management of the company to real and genuine corporate account," Mick Cash said, adding “RMT is also angry that the findings that led to this judgement are not being shared with us and discussed openly so that real lessons can be learnt to prevent a repetition."

He said “RMT will continue to fight for safety in the UK offshore industry against the current background of cuts.”

Despite RMT's complaints, The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), national regulator for workplace health and safety said "This is the largest fine handed down by a Sheriff’s Court for health and safety offences."

Russell Breen, HSE Operations Manager, said in a statement that: “This incident was foreseeable and entirely preventable. There were a number of failures on the part of Total, which contributed to the blowout."

"They failed to properly calculate the weight of kill fluid required; departed from the proposed well kill plan without considering relevant contingency arrangements and relied on an untested assumption that a sudden uncontrolled release at the wellhead could not occur. All of these contributed to them losing control of the well and the sudden uncontrolled release of gas."

* The Effect of the Leak. (Credit: BBC)

“Industry must learn from this, it is an important reminder of the ever-present hazards with oil and gas production and the need for them to be rigorously managed. This could have easily led to loss of life.”

Total has cooperated fully with HSE’s investigation of the accident, undertaken their own investigations, reviewed their procedures and shared the lessons learned with the wider industry in order to reduce the likelihood of others repeating the errors.

Total E&P Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 13(1)(a) and (b) of the Offshore Installations and Wells (Design and Construction, etc) Regulations 1996 and Section 33(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.

The Sheriff court was told that Total had been experiencing problems of high pressure gas leaking into the affected well for some time. On 25th February 2012, the well suffered a series of casing failures, which Total correctly responded to by beginning a well kill operation on the 15th March. However, Total failed to identify and implement sufficient control measures and control of the well was progressively lost until, on the 25th March 2012, the well failed.