Offshore safety statistics bulletin 2010/11

Fatal and major injuries to offshore workers

Figure 1: Fatal and major injuries
1997/1998 – 2010/2011p

Figure 2: Combined fatal and major injury rate
1997/1998 – 2009/10p

Based on provisional figures for 2010/11:

• There were 42 major injuries reported during the period, a reduction of eight compared to 2009/10 and compares to an average of 42 major injuries over each of the previous five years.
• There were an estimated 27,660 offshore workers in 2010/11, an increase of 3.99% on the 2009/10 estimate of 26,598 workers. These figures were obtained from an industry-based data source¹.
• The combined fatal and major injury rate fell to 151.84 per 100,000 workers in 2010/11 compared to 187.9 in 2009/10, the third lowest rate over the last 10 years (the lowest in 2008 being 106.2). The five-year average prior to 10/11 is 164.3.
• One fatality occurred in 2010/11 when a worker collapsed during a working shift. The incident was not caused by a work accident, and is not reportable under RIDDOR, so is not included as a fatality statistic.

Types of accident               

Based on provisional figures for 2010/2011:

• The main causes of major injuries were related to slips/trips/falls (16), being trapped or struck by moving objects (15), or injuries associated with lifts/pulls/pushes/handling of loads (4), accounting for 83% of the total;
• 19 major injuries were to the upper limb/finger/wrist and 14 to the lower limb²
• 27 major injuries (64%) were due to fracture.³

¹ Provisional data extracted from Vantage system via StepChange in Safety.

² Lower limb includes ankle, foot, toes and rest of lower limb.

³ Fractures to fingers, thumbs or toes are classed as over-3-day injuries and not as major injuries unless hospitalised over 24 hrs.

Over-3-day injuries to offshore workers

Figure 3: Over 3-Day Injuries
1997/1998 – 2010/2011p

Figure 4: Over 3-day injury rate
1997/1998 – 2010/2011p

• The number of reported over-3-day injuries has reduced this year by 4 to 106 (3.6% fall) and continues the downward trend since 2006/07.
• Based on the workforce figure of 27,660 workers, the over-3-day injury rate per 100,000 workers (383.2) for 2010/11 shows a 7.4% fall on that recorded for 2009/10 (413) and is a new low.

Types of accident               

Based on provisional figures for 2010/2011:

• Slips, trips and falls, accounted for approx. 27% of over-3-day injuries whilst injuries related to striking or being struck or trapped account for 35%.  Lifting operations, handling of plant, push/pull activities and injuries from body movements accounted for approx. 31%;
• 56 over-3-day injuries (53%) resulted in injury to the upper limb⁴;
• 24% of injuries were to parts of the foot and lower limbs and 15% to the back, neck and torso area.

⁴ Upper limb includes finger/thumbs, hand, wrist and rest of upper limb.

Incidences of ill-health to workers offshore

• The total number of cases of offshore ill health reported was 8, a reduction of 5 on the previous year.
• The diseases reported included 5 incidents of chickenpox and 1 case of mumps, (exactly the same as 2009/10).  Occupational health conditions involved 2 cases of decompression illness.

Dangerous occurrences offshore

Figure 5: Dangerous occurrences
1997/1998 – 2010/2011p

Based on provisional figures for 2010/2011:

• 432 dangerous occurrences (including well incidents) were reported.
• Main types of dangerous occurrences reported were hydrocarbon releases (38.9%), dropped objects, adverse weather damage and failure of equipment required to maintain installation position offshore (25.9%) well-related incidents (9.2%) and lifting operations related (6.3%).

Hydrocarbon Releases (HCRs)⁵

Figure 6: Offshore hydrocarbon releases

⁵ Major, Significant and Minor Release Severity Classifications are described on the HSE Website in the Hydrocarbons Release Database HELP facility.

Hydrocarbon releases are regarded as potential precursors to major accidents if ignited, and HSE monitors the number of major and significant hydrocarbon releases as a key performance indicator (KPI) of the offshore industry’s effectiveness of process health and safety management on offshore installations.   Based on provisional figures for 2010/11:

• There was a significant reduction in the total number of Major and Significant HCRs (73) in 2010/11 compared to the previous year’s total of 85. This maintains the annual average of 73 over the previous five years.
• The number of minor HCRs fell slightly in 2010/11 (95) compared to 2009/10 (102).
• Overall the total number of releases fell by 19 in 2010/11.

RIDDOR reportable HCRs are unintended releases of petroleum gas or liquids from an offshore installation which either result in fire or explosion or require action to prevent or limit the consequences of a potential fire or explosion if ignited, or which have the potential to cause death or major injury.  During 2010/11 five releases (i.e. 3% of all reported HCRs) were reported as ignited events.

Few of these HCRs gave rise to incidents which could, in whole or in part, be considered as "oil spills"⁶.  The number of the liquid based HCR incidents where a quantity of hydrocarbon liquid was released to the sea in 2010/11 was very small - seven in total – with the amounts ranging from minimal to 500kg. 

Supplementary data on hydrocarbon releases reported under RIDDOR are voluntarily reported to HSE by operators on Form OIR/12.  Figure 6 is based upon those HCRs for which Form OIR/12 have been processed. Final figures may be subject to variation depending on when OIR/12 returns are made to HSE).

⁶ Dept. of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) Petroleum Operations Notice 1 (PON1) report form is used by operators to report all releases of oils and chemicals of whatever size to sea from offshore installations and pipelines under the Offshore Petroleum Activities (Oil Pollution Prevention and Control) Regulations 2005 (OPPC)(as amended) and Offshore Chemicals Regulations 2002 (OCR) (as amended) to DECC and other authorities. For details of spills to sea refer to DECC.

Oil & Gas UK key performance indicators on Verification & Safety Critical Maintenance

Since 2008, Oil and Gas UK (O&GUK) have been collecting voluntary industry data, monitoring two additional offshore KPIs to track industry performance in key areas of major hazard prevention.  These two KPIs relate to the level of outstanding safety critical maintenance (KPI-3) and to the level of issues raised by operators’ 3rd party verification (KPI-2) of the performance of its safety critical elements (and how findings are subsequently closed out).  Whilst this data is not collected or validated by HSE, these two additional cross-industry KPIs are included in this HSE Offshore Safety Statistics Bulletin for the first time to provide useful additional evidence of the offshore industry’s major hazard management performance.

O&GUK monitoring activity is on a quarterly basis.  Headline findings relating to these two KPIs are:

• (Fig.7) Safety critical maintenance backlog of activities beyond planned completion date (excluding activities subjected to formal deferral procedures) is cyclical in nature but shows a decreasing trend over the three year period since Q1 – 2008.

For further details of O&GUK key performance indicators on verification (KPI-2) and safety critical maintenance backlogs (KPI-3) contact Oil & Gas UK.

Fig.7: O&GUK chart.
KPI-3 Safety critical planned maintenance backlogs

• (Fig 8) Verification non-compliance for less significant Level 2 findings based on average number of findings per installation has shown a 36% reduction from 14 to 9 since Q1 - 2008.
• (Fig.9) Verification non-compliance measured across 210 reporting installations since Q1 – 2008 has shown a 63% reduction (68 to 25) in the more significant (Level 3) findings by independent verification bodies over the 3 year period.

Fig.8: O&GUK graph
Verification non-compliance, Level 2 average - Open findings per installation

Fig.9: O&GUK graph
Verification non-compliance, Level 3 industry tool - Total findings

Notes:

This bulletin provides provisional data for 2010/11.  A further breakdown of the headline information contained in this Bulletin will be provided later this year in the annual Offshore Injury and Incident Statistics Report, produced as part of the HID Statistics Report (HSR) series of publications.

Interpretation of trends over a short period of time should be treated with caution, particularly when addressing small data populations.