Shell expro fined 900,000 for brent bravo double fatality

HSE press release E059:05 - 27 April 2005

Shell UK Limited, trading as Shell UK Exploration and Production (Shell Expro), were today fined a total of £900,000 at Stonehaven Sheriff Court, after pleading guilty to breaching health and safety legislation at an earlier hearing. The case follows an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the deaths of two workers on Shell Expro's Brent Bravo offshore production platform on 11 September 2003.

Sean McCue and Keith Moncrieff were inspecting pipework in the utility leg of the installation, which is located some 180 miles east of the Shetland Isles, when they were overcome by a large release of hydrocarbon gas.

At an earlier hearing before Stonehaven Sheriff Court, Shell Expro admitted breaching Sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (the HSW Act) by failing

to ensure the health and safety of employees and people not in their employment, and Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 by failing to complete a suitable and sufficient risk assessment.

After the hearing, Tom McLaren, a Principal Inspector with HSE's Offshore Division, said: "Our first thoughts are with the families of Sean McCue and Keith Moncrieff and the deep sense of loss that they must feel.

"HSE conducted an extensive investigation. Shell co-operated fully and has admitted to fundamental failures in health and safety management on Brent Bravo. This has been reflected in the penalties imposed by the court today. Essential barriers to the unplanned release of hydrocarbon gas that should have been in place were not - even though these were not high-cost items for an offshore operator. As a direct consequence of these failures, two men died."

McLaren added: "Their deaths are a stark reminder of the dangers offshore workers can be exposed to if risks are not adequately managed and should act as a riposte to any suggestions that health and safety initiatives offshore have become over-zealous. As the case proves, any reduction in vigilance by either managers or the workforce may well have reprehensible results, not only in terms of harm to people, but also the sustainability of the UKCS. Good safety performance is inseparable from sustainable operational performance - ultimately optimum production is not possible when accidents take place offshore.

"This incident had very serious underlying causes: failure to maintain known defective equipment properly and a failure to assess potential consequences. HSE believes that the circumstances on Brent Bravo which led to these two deaths could have occurred on other offshore installations if maintenance had been neglected and continuation of production allowed to take priority over safety, notwithstanding the fact that this approach is senselessly short-sighted. The message to the oil industry is clear: they should critically examine their own maintenance systems to make an honest assessment of how much confidence their senior management can have in the safety and integrity of their installations."

Note to Editors

1. Section 2(1) of the HSW Act states: " It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees."
2. Section 3(1) of the HSW Act states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not exposed to risks to their health or safety ."
3. Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 states that " Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work."
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