Oil worker flown to hospital after being injured offshore

An oil worker has been airlifted to hospital after he fell from a ladder.

The man, in his 40s, was injured in the incident, which happened at about 8.45pm last night on the Gryphon Alpha Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) vessel, about 90 miles east of Sumburgh, Shetland.

The coastguard were alerted but due to the high winds and fog were unable to send a search and rescue helicopter to the rig until this morning.

The injured worker was flown to Sumburgh Airport before the ambulance service transported him to Gilbert Bain Hospital, in Lerwick.

A spokesman for the ambulance service confirmed he was in a “stable” condition.

The Gryphon has a production rate of around 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.

In 2011, a North Sea storm ripped it from its moorings, damaging its subsea systems. It was later towed to dry dock in Rotterdam. It took nearly two years to refit the vessel with the final insurance bill totaling nearly $1billion.