The number of incidents related to offshore oil and gas operations in the EU28 (including the United Kingdom) rose sharply between 2017 and 2018, from 59 incidents to 124, while the number of installations remained relatively stable, according to the European Commission’s latest annual report on safety in the sector, released on Tuesday 25 August.
According to this document, most (80%) of the observed failures fell into the category of unintentional releases and 13.7% involved loss of well control (blowout/diverter activation).
Incidents increased particularly in the United Kingdom, from 30 to 99, and in the Netherlands, from 13 to 52.
As in 2016 and 2017, there were no fatal accidents in 2018, but 10 injuries and 17 serious injuries were reported.
In the light of these results, the Commission indicated that it will cooperate closely with the competent authorities concerned in order to “carry out an in-depth analysis of causes” of these developments and to consider possible follow-up to raise safety performance as soon as possible.
See the report: https://bit.ly/2D3QoSw (Damien Genicot)