Shell Gannet Alpha platform in trouble again
By John Donovan
It seems that Shell's Gannet Alpha platform has had another close call.
On Monday workers were evacuated and production shut down after natural gas began seeping out from under the platform.
All of the ingredients for a disastrous explosion, of the kind that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, which almost brought about the demise of BP and the explosion on Shell Brent Bravo, resulting from Shell management (Malcolm Brinded) failing to take adequate action after a safety audit exposed a "Touch F*** All" safety culture and falsification of safety records.
Printed below is a comment from a Shell North Sea Platform Safety & Maintenance Expert on the recent oil spill near the Gannet Alpha Platform.
…another example of reactive maintenance regime, i.e. allowing, through neglect, equipment to fail and then reacting to the failure rather than, as the Safety Case for Gannet prescribes, preventing failure in the first instance by application of appropriate maintenance, inspection and monitoring.
(Expert in question may be available to the media for comment)
It seems that not much has changed. Production, profits and FAT CAT bonuses take priority over the safety of offshore workers.
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