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Culture of fear on Bass Strait oil rig in lead-up to ‘flash fire’
By Noel Towell and Peter Milne
Workers at an Esso oil rig in the Bass Strait were afraid of being sacked if they raised safety concerns in the lead-up to a “flash fire” that injured an employee on the drilling platform in April.
The federal offshore oil and gas regulator has ordered the company to hire independent experts for a review of its eight oil rigs in the strait after a scathing assessment of the workplace culture before the fire.
Workers feared for their jobs on a Bass Strait oil rigCredit: James Davies
The notice to take action, published on Tuesday, is the second major intervention this year in Bass Strait operations by the normally hands-off National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA).
In May the authority ordered a massive environmental clean-up, ruling that 180 oil wells in the area should be capped and 10 production platforms dismantled.
The worker suffered burns to his hands and arms in the three-second “flash fire” on the Kingfish B platform about 90 kilometres off the coast of Lakes Entrance on April 26 when gas vapour ignited during maintenance work.
He was working for maintenance contractor UGL.
The ensuing investigation by NOPSEMA concluded that a series of failures to take reasonable steps to mitigate the risk of fire or explosion led to the worker being hurt.
Derrick O’Keeffe, head of the regulator’s safety and integrity division, also found employees on the rig were worried that speaking out about safety concerns would put their jobs on the line.
“Members of the workforce felt unable to convey their concerns about the work and were concerned that their ongoing employment would be at risk if they did so,” Mr O’Keefe wrote in his notice.
In addition to the independent safety review, the NOPSEMA official has also ordered an investigation into why workers on the rig felt unable to speak out on safety.
The Bass Strait operation is an equal joint venture between BHP and ExxonMobil that operates the facilities through its subsidiary Esso. An Exxon spokesman told The Age on Wednesday that the company responded quickly to the fire “protecting our personnel, making the platform safe and pausing work activities.
“Since the incident, we have worked hard to incorporate learnings and address any concerns the regulator or our workers may have, and Esso has already taken corrective actions, including equipment upgrades, enhancement of training procedures and increased interface with contract partners.
“We actively encourage our workforce to report any safety concerns without fear of retribution, so we can identify and prevent incidents before they occur and apply these learnings across all of our operations to ensure a safe workplace for all.”
Esso has drilled for oil and gas in the Bass Strait since 1969, with 421 wells sunk over the four decades, 19 platforms built and about 600 kilometres of pipeline laid on the seabed.
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