Fresh safety concerns have been raised about a North Sea vessel at the centre of a death probe in 2007.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has issued Talisman Sinopec with an improvement notice for its Bleo Holm floating storage, production and offloading vessel (FPSO).
The oil giant has been accused of failing to take appropriate measures to protect people on board in the event of a fire or an explosion.
The HSE says blast walls in one part of the vessel have corroded so badly that there are holes in the steel.
Last night the firm – which has its North Sea headquarters in Aberdeen – said work was already under way to tackle the problem.
But it is not the first time safety concerns have been raised about the 105,000-tonne vessel.
In 2008, before Sinopec took a stake in Talisman, the firm was fined £600,000 after admitting safety breaches which led to the death of an oil worker a year earlier.
Matthew Grey, from Darlington, was killed and co-worker, Norman Jackson, from North Shields, was injured when a lifting operation on the ship went wrong.
Talisman later admitted failing to provide a safe system of work for people in its employment.
At Aberdeen Sheriff Court, it also admitted failing to identify the risks of carrying out lifting and cutting operations and not ensuring the procedure had been planned properly by a competent person.
The HSE has also raised corrosion fears about the vessel before, in 2011, following two gas releases.
The part of the ship affected by the latest notice – the utilities service block – houses machinery key to the operation of the vessel.
A spokesman for the firm insisted that safety had not been compromised.
He said: “We can confirm that we have received an improvement notice from the Health and Safety Executive with reference to remedial work required on the walls of the utilities service block on the Bleo Holm floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility.
“The facility remains fully operational and the safety of all those on board is not compromised by the matter identified by the HSE. Work is under way to implement a permanent solution and we continue to closely monitor the issue.”
Meanwhile, the HSE has also issued French-operator Total with an improvement notice for its Dunbar platform.
Inspectors were concerned about the level of noise workers were being exposed to.
Last night, the firm said it accepted the caution.
A spokesman said: “We accept the HSE’s rationale for issuing us with this notice in June.
“We responded at that time by undertaking to put in place measures to address the issues highlighted and proposing a date by which we would make the necessary improvements.
“They accepted our proposed actions and our timescale, since when – with input from external specialists – we have made significant progress towards implementing all the relevant improvements by the agreed deadline of the end of October.”
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