Posts Tagged ‘Brent Bravo’

upstreamonline: In-depth revision ordered at Brent Charlie following major gas leaks

The UK Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has taken the rare step of ordering a thorough safety review at Shell’s Brent Charlie platform following two major gas leaks.

ROB WATTS London  06 May 2011 01:53 GMT

The HSE has told Shell to submit a revised safety case for the Brent Charlie platform after gas was detected on its topsides following leaks on 12 January this year and 27 September 2010, Upstream can reveal.

Shell, which took the decision itself to close the platform after the January incident, has been battling for some time to resolve technically complex issues related to the venting of gas from inside one the platform’s huge concrete legs — Column 1 (C1) — and dispersing it effectively away from the platform.

The operator now expects the ageing Brent field to remain shut down for several more months.

Gas can build up periodically in some of the platform’s large concrete storage cells on the seabed, where oil and produced water are stored after processing, and can then migrate into the C1 leg. This is called a ‘glug’.

The Brent field has been shut-in since mid-January when a 25-tonne protective fender fell from the Brent Bravo platform into the sea, two days after the gas leak that prompted Shell to shut in Brent Charlie.

The Anglo-Dutch operator has been working since to resolve the two separate problems.

Shell told Upstream: “Production will not resume until all necessary work is done and we now expect that could be some months rather than weeks.”

The HSE said: “We can confirm that Shell… has been directed by HSE to prepare a revision of the Brent Charlie safety case and resubmit the safety case to HSE for assessment.”

The regulator said that the current safety case “does not adequately consider the major accident hazard arising from the uncontrolled release of flammable or explosive substances from the storage cells into Column 1”.

Brent Charlie will remain shut in if the HSE is not satisfied Shell has found a solution that mitigates the risk of a major incident happening.

The request from the HSE is understood to be one of the first since the UK’s goal-setting offshore safety regime was introduced in the wake the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster.

It could also mark an apparent willingness on the part of the regulator to use an unconventional method of enforcing offshore safety requirements, normally done using Improvement or Prohibition notices.

Oil and gas installations off the UK cannot operate without an approved safety case.

Shell said: “The safety case for Brent Charlie has not been withdrawn. The HSE has asked Shell to provide more detail on the part of the safety case which relates to Column 1.

“There was a ‘glug’ in 2010. After another occurred on 12 January 2011 Shell made the decision to shut down the platform.

“The additional material for the safety case was requested after the January 2011 incident. We are working towards restarting production as soon as safely possible.”

Shell confirmed it is also facing other issues at Brent Charlie, including the thinning of export pipeline walls, which will also have to be overcome before the platforms can be restarted.

Published: 06 May 2011 01:53 GMT  | Last updated: 06 May 2011 08:19 GMT

RELATED ARTICLE

“It is my intention, when I update Trade Union officials et al, to inform them that I made you aware of this matter and I would expect Geoffrey, if he has any of that difficult to obtain substance in our modern world, called honour, to apologise for the fact that your were duped and misled.”

Bill Campbell referring to Geoffrey Podger (right), Chief Executive of the Health & Safety Executive

This correspondence is directed to Lord Browne of Ladyton and concerns issues raised by him on my behalf in a Letter to Lord McKenzie at that time an Under Secretary of State at the DWP on 23 August 2007.  At the time Des Browne was the Secretary of State for Scotland.

Dear Mr Browne

At the time Lord McKenzie answered your letter, with the standard reply to some 15 other MP’s who had raised concerns directly with him.  This was as a result of a open letter that I had copied to all MP’s in 2007.  I have highlighted in the attachment (in bold) how these concerns were handled both by HSE and DWP but suffice to say you were given unambiguous assurances that the concerns raised by me were unfounded.

The position taken by Geoffrey Podger is described in the attachment, he was apparently not involved in the process and did not authorise the HSE information passed to DWP which was then used to give you assurance. The HSE information was also not authorised or indeed discussed by the then Head of the Offshore Division in Aberdeen, he confirmed this to me in writing.  The HSE information passed to DWP was written by an HSE official within the Offshore Division whose actions (amongst others) were the subject of the criminal investigation.  The issue is that the information passed to you was false and misleading, or lies if you like the dictionary definition.

Without boring you with great detail their were 2 principal areas of deceit in the information passed to DWP.

The official stated that the evidence I passed to HSE both in 2003 only days after the fatalities on Brent Bravo, and in the period May 2005 was for information only.  Both the Fiscal and Grampian Police were copied on the letter I passed to the same official on 22nd May 2005 where I requested that my evidence could be used in the Prosecution of Shell and more importantly be passed to the Lord Advocate who at that time was debating as to whether a FAI was to be held or not.  It is not contentious that the statement made by the HSE official was false.

Secondly the official stated in blunt terms that my evidence provided in 2003 and 2005 was not evidence, not relevant and could therefore be dismissed. As stated on the attachment that was also a false assurance.  It was the detail of that evidence that was the basis for the Police to consider it a serious matter and thus report to the Fiscal and for her investigation then to commence in March 2009.  It is speculation, but given the concerns raised publicly by prominent politicians at the time including Alex Salmond, and by Trade Unions, that if that evidence had been made available to the Procurator Fiscal Depute dealing with these matters at the time, that a more General Inquiry would have been held as discussed in the attachment.

Although it is accepted that the official passed false information to the DWP, and hence to you and others, you may be surprised to know that the official has never been subject to internal disciplinary action and was not interviewed informally, or formally under caution, to ascertain why he did this.  Either by the police or the Fiscal.

It is my intention, when I update Trade Union officials et al, to inform them that I made you aware of this matter and I would expect Geoffrey, if he has any of that difficult to obtain substance in our modern world, called honour, to apologise for the fact that your were duped and misled. I am confident if you had been made aware of the true situation you would have taken appropriate actions to fully understand the implications of the concerns raised in 2007.

I would like to thank your interest at the time and wish you well in your new role in the Lords.  I note your interest in human rights, the story in the attachment is not only about how the human rights of workers offshore were ignored but how their legal rights, under the various provisions of the H&S etc at Work Act, were also ignored by a callous employer and a non-compliant Regulator.

Yours sincerely

Bill Campbell
March 17, 2011

Subject: Brent Bravo: watch Mark Carne

Dear John,

This email contains information about Mark Carne (right), who is currently employed by Shell as Regional Vice President for Middle East and North Africa. He reports directly to Malcolm Brinded. This email account has been set up to safeguard my anonymity, as Mr. Carne is known to not handle criticism very well.

Over the years you have reported about Brent Bravo http://royaldutchshellplc.com/tag/brent-bravo/, and consistently linked the matter with Malcolm Brinded. Maybe the time is right to take a closer look at Mr. Carne, who was the manager for Brent at the time. Mr. Carne’s style is to manage-by-viewgraph and to ignore or suppress unwanted information from the work floor. He instigated bonuses that led to the “Touch F*** All” culture on Brent; he remained clueless about their negative impact while others had already become concerned. Several years ago, Mr. Carne didn’t get a job in Shell UK that he was hoping for, and he left to take a role in BG. It didn’t take BG long to release him.

I would not have bothered to write down any of the above, if I hadn’t found out recently that Mr. Carne has joined Shell again. In his new role there is more potential for damage. The first signals are already noticeable. It would be really concerning if he ever was to be considered as a candidate to succeed Mr. Brinded.

Regards,
Someone who prefers to remain anonymous.

EMAIL ENDS

RIGHT OF REPLY OFFERED BY JOHN DONOVAN: MR MARK CARNE IS INVITED TO SUPPLY A RESPONSE IF HE TAKES ISSUE WITH THE VERACITY OF ANY INFORMATION STATED ABOVE. HIS REPLY WOULD BE PUBLISHED ON AN UNEDITED BASIS.

Related Articles

1. What is going on in Brinded’s inner circle?

2. Shell Names Mark Carne As Country Chmn For Dubai, N Emirates

Monday, Sep 27, 2010

DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)–Royal Dutch ShellRoyal Dutch ShellLoading… plc (RDSB) said Monday it appointed Mark Carne as executive vice president and country chairman for Shell Group in Dubai and the U.A.E.’s Northern Emirates.

Carne will take “over the responsibilities of Raoul Restucci for Shell Upstream International with responsibility for the businesses in the Middle East and North Africa,” the oil company said in an emailed statement.

Carne, who is also a member of Royal Dutch ShellRoyal Dutch ShellLoading…’s Upstream International Leadership Team, was employed with Shell
until 2005, his last role being managing director for Brunei Shell Petroleum. He was also with BG Group as executive vice president and managing director for Europe and Central Asia.

-By Brinda Darasha, Dow Jones Newswires; +9714 446-1688; brinda.darasha@dowjones.com

Copyright (c) 2010 Dow Jones & Co.

SOURCE ARTICLE

3. Mark Carne, Chairman of Dubai and Northern Emirates Region, Royal Dutch Shell plc

18 Jan 2011

Mark Carne has been Chairman of Dubai and Northern Emirates Region at Royal Dutch Shell plc since September 2010. Mr. Carne served as an Executive Vice President of BG Group plc since May 1, 2005 and also its Managing Director of Europe & Central Asia since March 2006. Mr. Carne served as Managing Director – North West Europe of BG Group Plc since May 1, 2005. He joined BG from Shell, where he served as Managing Director of Brunei Shell Petroleum and Country Chairman … for Shell companies in Brunei until 2005. He was employed with Shell until 2005. He also worked in upstream assets and held a number of commercial and general management roles in the UK and the Netherlands. His first Middle East assignment was as engineering manager with Petroleum Development Oman from 1992 to 1996. Prior to that, Mr. Carne served as the Asset Director, responsible for Shell’s U.K. North Sea oil production. His international experience includes various general management roles in the U.K., Holland and Oman covering operations, engineering, commercial and business development. Mr. Carne holds a B.Sc in Engineering Science from the University of Exeter, UK and a Chartered Diploma in accounting and finance from the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology.

SOURCE ARTICLE

COMMENTS FROM A FORMER EMPLOYEE OF SHELL OIL USA ON RECENT ARTICLES PUBLISHED ON THIS WEBSITE

John

Part of Shell Brent Bravo oil platform falls into North Sea

I just read about the Brent ‘incident’. That ‘little problem’ should have been taken care of through a preventive maintenance inspection program long ago. Sea water is not only highly corrosive to steel, but cyclical loading caused by wave action can induce fatigue failure. Believe it or not, the useful life of an airplane or a submarine is determined by the number of pressurization cycles the fuselage or hull goes through. Oil tankers have a useful life based on the number of stress cycles the hull has undergone. Oil tankers have split in half because of hull fatigue failure.

RD Shell should have recognized the life-cycle maintenance costs long ago and instituted appropriate inspection and maintenance programs to prevent what just occurred. After all, large pieces of structure falling to the sea bottom at high velocity could damage oil pipelines and cause serious releases of oil. Even Shell acknowledges that fact, which is why they shut down the production until the pipelines can be inspected.

This is not responsible conduct on the part of RD Shell and they should be sanctioned and fined appropriately. However, this gives everyone a good idea as to what RD Shell management thinks about environmental issues and platform health and safety issues. The really don’t give a ‘flying rat’s rear end’ about the consequences. They will pay their fine an move on.

Court adjourns case against Shell

I read your article about the law suit against RD Shell for failure to pay a fellow in an arms trafficking deal in Nigeria. RD Shell is admitting ‘arming’ the Nigerian governments ‘Spy Police’. My, my. What can I say, ‘Where the law ends, ….tyranny reigns.’ RD Shell, the ‘Yellow Peril‘, purveyor of tyranny and oppression. What is new. The Mafia is an amateur group of petty thugs in comparison to RD Shell.

Dr John Huong: Donovan correspondence with Royal Dutch Shell

I read the letter your father posted to RD Shell regarding its lawsuit against Dr. Huong. I don’t know how British or the Malaysian courts operate, but here in the States one is protected as a matter of constitutional law from being compelled to give what would amount to be ‘testimony against yourself’. This protection is found in the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution. In addition we have the ability to depose individuals, i.e., obtain sworn testimony, outside of the proceedings in a court room. So, under US law, which based upon English common law, it would have been possible to receive sworn testimony from your father in his own home, if necessary. This sworn testimony is completely admissible in a court of law in the US.

I find it very odd indeed that the Malaysian Courts and RD Shell’s attorneys in particular, would take the approach they did under the circumstances. Their conduct toward your father was nothing less than deliberately pernicious.

As a history student many years ago I had the opportunity study post WWI Weimar and Nazi German history in some detail. I also had the opportunity to read through the transcripts of the post WW2 trials held in Nuremberg, Germany. What most people do not realize was that Hitler was truly a political genius, if perverted and twisted in his view of the world. He was very careful about how he operated. In fact, the manner in which he did operate was completely ‘legal’ under German law at that time, which was a highly buggered version of the Weimar Constitution.

I must say that the way the Malaysian courts and Shell conducted themselves in this matter brought to might the way the German courts operated during the days of the Third Reich. The approach and methods are uncannily similar.

It would appear that, at the behest and co-opting of RD Shell’s eight subsidiaries, the apparently very corrupt Malaysian authorities (e.g. 1 2 3) operated as if Dr. Huong, and apparently your father, were  ‘Enemies of the State’. Only the ‘State’ in this case was standing in for RD Shell. These proceedings against Dr. Huong are not only ridiculous, they indicate how far RD Shell will go to ‘punish’ its perceived ‘enemies of the corporate ‘State’.

These proceedings also indicate that RD Shell management is more than willing to go to great lengths to ‘bend’ the political authority of legal governmental institutions to do their bidding. We have seen this in the way Shell has operated in Ireland, and here in the US through the Gale Norton affair at the US Dept. of the Interior, and their apparent espionage operations targeting the US Dept. of Defense. The revelations of the Wiki-leaks disclosures indicate how far RD Shell has taken this method of operation in RD Shell apparently functions as a ‘shadow government’ there.

It would appear that the warning of 100 years ago to ‘Beware the Yellow Peril’ is as valid today as it was then.

JANUARY 18, 2011

By Sarah Kent Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

LONDON (Dow Jones)– Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB) Tuesday said its four platforms in the North Sea’s Brent field will be shut for an undisclosed period while it investigates the causes and impact of an accident Saturday.

The four platforms were shut after a fender fell off the Brent Bravo platform, the company told Dow Jones Newswires.

No people were hurt in the incident, but Brent Bravo and three other platforms, Brent Alpha, Brent Charlie and Brent Delta were shut as a precautionary measure, the company said.

The U.K. Health and Safety Executive, which is responsible for enforcing safety regulations in the North Sea, said it was “aware of the situation and working with Shell U.K.”

In 2005, Shell was fined GBP900,000 for health and safety breaches on the Bravo platform after the deaths of two men on the facility in 2003.

The Brent field produces 20,000 barrels of oil per day and 4.5 million cubic meters of gas.

-By Sarah Kent, Dow Jones Newswires;4420-7842-9376; sarah.kent@dowjones.com

SOURCE ARTICLE

Good Morning John: Please find link to an article in the mornings Aberdeen press and Journal.  It would appear that Brinded’s “Touch F***All” initiative is alive and well in the Shell organisation! The natural enemies of safety are still:- Ignorance, arrogance and complacency, all three are still being lovingly cared for within the Shell Business Principles .

Production Stops at Shell’s Brent Bravo

By Rebecca Buchan

Published: 17/01/2011

OIL giant Shell has halted production at four of its platforms and sent 100 workers back onshore after part of a platform fell into the North Sea.

An investigation is being carried out on the Brent Bravo platform after a heavy protective frame, known as a fender, collapsed.

No one was injured and the company said there was no significant damage caused.

The other three Brent platforms – Alpha, Charlie and Delta – do not have these protective frames, however Shell has had to stop all production on the Brent field as all the rigs work together in a “hub”.

Around 40 employees still remain on the platform and the oil company was last night unsure when they would be able to begin production again.

HALTED

A spokeswoman for Shell said: “All non-essential personnel onboard the Shell-operated Brent Bravo platform in the northern North Sea returned to shore yesterday and production has been halted on the four Brent platforms. We have taken these actions as a precautionary measure while we inspect three heavy protective frames at the waterline on the Brent Bravo.”

Jake Malloy, general secretary of the Oil Industry Liaison Committee, said: “If this piece of structure has damaged any piping on the sea bed then a precautionary measure to shut down operations is a responsible decision on behalf of Shell.”

In October, the platform was awarded a Sword of Honour, an award which recognises health and safety systems which are among the best in the world. A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) spokeswoman said: “HSE is aware of the situation and is working with Shell UK.”

The Brent field came into production in 1976 and once provided 10% of Britain’s gas.It still produces 14 million cubic metres of gas and 28,000 barrels of oil a day.

SOURCE ARTICLE

ARTICLE NEGLECTS TO MENTION THE BRENT BRAVO EXPLOSION IN WHICH SHELL WORKERS LOST THEIR LIVES AND SHELL RECEIVED A RECORD BREAKING FINE FOR AVOIDABLE DEATHS

SHELL BRENT BRAVO SCANDAL:

THE EVIDENCE ASSEMBLED BY BILL CAMPBELL, FORMER HSE GROUP AUDITOR, SHELL INTERNATIONAL: READ

SELECTION OF ARTICLES RELATING TO BRENT BRAVO FATALITIES: READ

RELATED EMAIL/LETTER SENT TO MEMBERS OF THE UK HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT: READ

THE FULL FILE OF BRENT BRAVO ARTICLES

A GREEDY OIL GIANT TOO MEAN AND RUTHLESS TO EVEN MAINTAIN SERVICEABILITY AND SAFETY OF NORTH SEA OIL PLATFORM LIFEBOATS…