The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has said it will make changes to its fire safety protocols following concerns raised about lax practices on some North Sea assets.
Among the HSE’s commitments will be a revised inspection guide, which will created in consultation with industry.
Last year, Rig Deluge managing director Ian Garden spoke with Energy Voice about his concerns that the “fail fix” process on North Sea oil and gas infrastructure was putting workers at risk of serious harm from fire.
Fail fix allows operators to self-test their deluge systems and retest failing systems until they pass.
A letter to Garden signed by HSE energy division director Samantha Peace read: “You came to us with concerns about deluge systems, that these were not being maintained so that they would work effectively if a fire broke out, exposing those on board installations to significant risk.
“Underlying this was the fact that people had lost sight of the outcome to be achieved, a system that would function on demand in the event of a fire, and instead were focused on passing a performance standard ‘in the moment’.”
In his discussion with Energy Voice, Garden pointed to a range of issues he found on when surveying the fire safety systems on North Sea rigs operated by Repsol.
Garden provided a series of recommendations to the HSE and Repsol to address these failures and bring their performance up to standard.
The HSE took regulatory action against Repsol, including serving two improvement notices against the company requiring it to better maintain its deluge systems.
“We found that the concerns you brought to us were justified,” Peace wrote.
“Deluge systems were failing tests, being cleaned, then passing a test, (or were only passing because they were pre -cleaned) but with no effort to understand the cause of the initial failure, and no trend analysis so that anyone could pick up on a signal that something was going awry.”
Repsol has since made improvements in compliance with the notice.
In her letter, Peace pointed out that enforcement of fire safety standards had led to several installations ceasing production for many months and that other operators have examine their systems and taken similar steps.
Among these was Spirit Energy, which shuttered natural gas production from its Morecambe Bay platform for four weeks on 12 March to conduct a fire safety inspection ahead of a routine inspection from the HSE.
According to a company spokesperson, the site’s deluge system was in the process of being tested, and production was “paused” to enable any necessary remedial measures.
In addition, Peace said that the HSE would ensure inspections were scheduled to check that operators’ solutions worked in the long term.
She added that the HSE will work with industry representatives such as OEUK, who have offered to host a leadership workshop after the revised inspection guide is published.
