Offshore oil and gas companies are being urged to focus more closely on the potential for human error to cause major accidents, after an inspection of a platform operated by Apache in the North Sea found failings in plans to prevent fires and explosions.
News
HSE urges offshore oil and gas firms to focus more on safety risks from human error
By
on 23 July 2024
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) issued a “major accident warning” to offshore firms on 22 July, in which it warned about the risks that human error can pose when performing safety critical tasks on oil and gas platforms.
HSE has issued a warning to all offshore firms to consider more closely the impact that human factors could have on safety critical tasks on oil and gas platforms. Photograph: iStock/Arild Lilleboe
The warning followed an improvement notice served by the regulator to Apache North Sea Limited in May, which said: “You have failed to take appropriate measures with a view to preventing fire and explosion – in particular to prevent the uncontrolled release of flammable or explosive substances, namely hydrocarbon fluids during main oil line (MOL) pig launcher operations, on the Forties Delta offshore installation.”
The notice added that human and organisational factors issues had not been addressed in the design of the pig launching system, or in the supporting procedures and competency management systems.
Apache, which has not appealed against the notice, has until 9 November to comply.
The action against Apache prompted a wider warning from HSE to all offshore firms to consider more closely the impact that human factors could have on safety critical tasks on oil and gas platforms.
“Offshore companies need to understand and evaluate where and how these safety critical tasks might be vulnerable to human error,” said Mary Marshall, a principal specialist inspector at HSE. “Safety Critical Task Analysis (SCTA) is an established, structured process that will help companies demonstrate that these tasks can be carried out safely, reliably, and that the risks are managed to as low as reasonably practicable.”
While several offshore companies have launched SCTA programmes, HSE says they have been implemented “with varying degrees of success”. Common failings include “a lack of sustained commitment and progress with the work, and inconsistencies in the quality of assessments”.
NEWS
Unite calls for urgent action to tackle violence after bus driver dies in attack
By Belinda Liversedge on 22 May 2026
Unite the union has called for more to be done to train bus drivers in how to deal with violence after a driver in his 60s was killed on his bus route.
UK workers “need legal heat limits” as summer temperatures set to smash 40°C
By Belinda Liversedge on 21 May 2026
The UK must introduce a legal maximum working temperature and urgently roll out air conditioning across schools, hospitals, and care homes as UK temperatures are forecast to exceed 40C by 2050, the government’s independent climate advisers have warned.
Nearly 4 in 10 UK workers suffer mental harm as Watchdog exposes widespread rights violations
By Belinda Liversedge on 19 May 2026
Work impacts negatively on 38 per cent of the UK workforce's mental health, a major study into where employment rights may be being breached has found.