An offshore worker was injured in a fire incident on Monday, October 14, on board the Taqa’s Tern Alpha platform in the North Sea, located about 90 nm to the northeast of the Shetland Islands in the UK, leading to a temporary production shut-down.
The worker suffered an arm injury due to the fire and was then medevaced by helicopter to Lerwick for treatment, after a request to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. The injured worker was flown by the Coastguard to Shetland to Gilbert Bain Hospital for medical treatment and was discharged within a few hours.
According to Taqa, “all crew on board were accounted for during muster and were stood-down shortly afterward. An investigation is underway, and the relevant authorities have been notified.” It was further stated that production was expected to resume on Tuesday, October 15.
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The Tern platform was built in the late 1980s by Shell, handling production from its own reservoir and from the nearby Hudson, Kestrel, Cladhan and Falcon fields.
In fact, the platform was operated under a joint Shell / Exxon license until 2008, when it was sold to Abu Dhabi state oil company TAQA.
Shell offered the declining Tern and the nearby Eider, North Cormorant, South Cormorant, Kestrel and Pelican fields to TAQA as a package of almost $680 million.
At the time of sale, the fields produced a combined 25-40,000 bpd, down from a peak of 200,000 bpd in the early 1990s.
TAQA has been investing in both plug-and-abandonment work and life extension measures for its North Sea holdings, as well as a conversion of the aging Eider production platform to a “utility” support role.
It is estimated that currently, the firm’s entire European portfolio produces about 40,000 bpd.
Lastly, it was in January, when an offshore worker died after falling into the North Sea, during works on the Total-operating Culzean field. Moreover, in May, a pipe-laying vessel caught fire operating in the Caspian Sea for the Italian oilfield service provider Saipem resulting to 14 burn injuries in various degrees.
