Potential fatality avoided on ExxonMobil platform as projectile plunges onto walkway



A serious incident took place last week on ExxonMobil’s Hebron platform offshore eastern Canada that could have resulted in a fatality.

The US supermajor reported that on 28 May, while completing maintenance work on a crane on the Hebron facility, a piece of metal equipment weighing 6.8 kilogrammes was projected 19 metres across the pipe deck, before striking the top of a handrail, and plunging 21 metres to a walkway.

In a report filed with the Canada-Newfoundland & Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (CNLOPB), which regulates oil and gas activities in the province, explained that a knuckle boom crane was being maintained using an hydraulic pin puller when the “near miss” incident took place.

The pin puller failed which resulted in the puller rod being projected across the pipe deck striking the top of the northwest pipe deck handrail and then dropping to the deck.

There were no injuries, said the CNLOPB.

However, the board pointed out that because “no barriers were in place for the path the rod travelled to the handrail, or for the drop path to the deck and walkway below, the incident had the potential for fatality”.

ExxonMobil immediately ceased work in the area and has initiated an investigation into the root cause of the incident.