Oil giant Shell has been sanctioned by safety chiefs after corrosion on one of its oldest North Sea platforms led to a gas leak.
The Health and Safety Executive has issued the major with an improvement notice following another incident on the Brent Charlie.
The HSE has previously warned that it feared “catastrophe” on the platform after a series of leaks in 2011.
However, last night Shell said that the latest incident was not serious and that the problem had been addressed.
All staff on the platform – located east of Shetland – were called to muster on November 18 after a gas alert.
The incident was stood down later that morning, but inspectors have accused Shell of failing to have systems in place that would see equipment which is exposed to the elements checked regularly for rust.
The notice – which was made public yesterday – stated: “You (Shell) failed to have effective arrangements to ensure work equipment exposed to conditions causing deterioration which is liable to result in dangerous situations is inspected at suitable intervals, and an adequate record of that inspection kept, to ensure that health and safety conditions are maintained and that any deterioration can be detected and remedied in good time.”
In January 2011, five days after another release on the Brent Charlie, HSE chiefs met with Shell in Aberdeen.
At the meeting they raised major concerns about leaks on the platform.
Papers released under freedom of information legislation later revealed the HSE said: “It is considered that for releases of this scale, ignition of such a cloud is almost inevitable and that it is foreseeable that the consequences could be catastrophic.”
The platform has not been the subject of any further action since then, however. Until now.
A spokeswoman for Shell said yesterday that the latest leak was an isolated incident.
“Shell can confirm that following a low-level gas alert at 07.39 on November 18 on Brent Charlie a General Platform Alarm (GPA) was initiated and a full muster was achieved.
“There were no injuries as a result of the incident. The area was made safe with the platform returning to normal status at 08.04. We have complied with the requirements of the Improvement Notice – which is now closed out.”