Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Press Releases
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) today published its offshore hydrocarbon releases statistics report for 2001, giving details of hydrocarbon releases from offshore oil and gas installations on the UK Continental Shelf. The report covers all hydrocarbon releases notified to HSE from 1 October 1992 to 31 March 2001, and replaces the 2000 statistics report (OTO 2000 112, issued December 2000).
During 2000/2001, 270 releases were reported to HSE Offshore Division (OSD). This represents an overall increase of 36 (15%) compared to the two previous yearly totals. However, the numbers of both major and significant releases have decreased substantially over the past three years, as shown in the table below:
Reported hydrocarbon releases 1996/97-2000/2001This report follows an earlier report (OTO 2001 055, issued September 2001) covering the first year of an HSE campaign to reduce the incidence of major and significant releases by 50% by 2004. The content of this report mirrors the findings published in September and expands upon them in some areas.
Commenting on the statistics report, Taf Powell, head of OSD, said:
"This is a key report for the offshore industry, as is evidenced by the major references made to HSE statistics in the excellent video 'Hydrocarbon release reduction - raising awareness' which was sponsored by the UK Offshore Operators Association (UKOOA). The video uses the hydrocarbon release statistics to demonstrate the major hazard potential contained in such incidents, and sets the scene for the current leak reduction campaign.
"HSE is working closely with industry to examine the problem areas and to try to reduce further the number of releases. The statistics are also being used to measure performance against the stated aim of reducing major and significant releases to 50% of the 2000 baseline figure by 2004.
"The 10% reduction in the total number of major and significant releases compared to last year's baseline is an encouraging improvement. The early indication from current figures is that this trend is continuing, although we'll have to wait and see if this is confirmed in the next statistics report. There were 50% more minor releases reported in the past year. There is good evidence that this increase is as a result of increased awareness of the need to report minor releases, and does not represent any increase in the number of minor releases occurring".
Mr Powell added:
"The leak frequency tables are particularly useful for risk assessment. HSE provides these data every two years for use in the quantified risk assessment (QRA) contained in offshore installation safety cases."The leak frequency values given in this report give statistical confirmation of the problem areas identified so far from the leak reduction campaign. They thus provide the means for offshore duty holders to quantify and analyse the risks in these areas, and to target improvements".
Copies of 'Offshore hydrocarbon releases statistics 2001' (HID Statistics Report HSR 2001 002) are available free from: HID Data Management Team, CD4C, Central Division, HSE, Room 201, Merton House, Stanley Road, Bootle, Merseyside L20 3DL (Tel: 0151-951 3099/ Fax: 0151 951 3098). Copies can also be downloaded free of charge from HSE wesbite at www.hse.gov.uk/hid/osd/hsr2001/
1. This is the sixth in the series of hydrocarbon release statistics reports, and is the first in a new HID Statistics Report (HSR) series, produced by HSE Hazardous Installations Directorate Central Division on behalf of Offshore Division.
2. This report covers the period 1 October 1992-31 March 2001 inclusive and its contents supersede all previously published hydrocarbon statistics. The data are obtained from incident reports required under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995, plus additional information submitted voluntarily by the offshore industry on form OIR/12.
3. The report aims to provide statistics for industry and the amount of discussion has therefore been restricted to that necessary to support the data presented. No detailed root cause analysis is provided.
4. Severity classification, introduced in 1997 and subsequently refined by agreement with industry, involves examination of release rate, duration and quantity released to estimate the potential for fire and/or explosion of each reported release. Of the 2071 reported releases to 31 March 2001, 143 were classified major (6.9% of all leaks), 1173 were significant releases (56.6%) and the remaining 755 were minor (36.5%). Severity definitions and criteria are described in detail in the report.
5. 131 ignitions (6.3% of all releases) have been reported since 1992. To date, there have been no ignited major releases, however 30.5% of all ignitions involved significant releases.
6. The report subdivides releases by type of hydrocarbon (e.g. liquids, gas or '2-phase'); type of installation; installation location; system type and equipment type, and it also contains statistics on detection modes, emergency action taken and causation.
7. The report includes details of the OSD process integrity initiative.
8. For further details of the video 'Hydrocarbon release reduction - raising awareness', contact Trisha O'Reilly, UKOOA Press Office, 020 7802 2422.
020 7717 6915.
Call HSE's InfoLine, tel: 0845 345 0055
or write to: HSE Information Services, Caerphilly Park, Caerphilly
CF83 3GG.
Published on the HSE web site on 4 February 2002