An incident on Repsol’s Gyda platform “could have resulted in loss of human life” after one person was injured when a dropped object caused a worker to fall, the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) said today.
The PSA determined that, “under slightly different circumstances”, the male who fell onto another deck as he tried to avoid the object could have died.
The incident occurred on May 15 2019.
The PSA claim the incident occurred while staff were “skidding the derrick” on Gyda.
A 480-kilogram side plate on the gripper system for the derrick skidding system came loose and dropped from a height “of about three metres”.
Two people were in the area where the panel dropped.
One worker fell “about 1.5 meters” as he attempted to avoid the falling object.
The PSA found that one person was injured ‘as a consequence of the incident’.
The investigation also determined that, under slightly different circumstances, this incident could have resulted in the loss of human life.
The Gyda field is located in the southern Norwegian section of North Sea along with Ula, Tambar and Tambar East fields.
It was first discovered in 1980.
The direct cause of the incident was heavy wear on parts of the skidding system, which in turn overloaded the mounting bolts which held the side plate in place.
The PSA has requested that Repsol “explain how the nonconformities will be dealt with” and asked the firm to provide an assessment of improvement points.
A deadline has been set for October 7 2019.