Production resumed at 1030 hrs on April 7th on the Dorothy platform. Negotiations are currently in progress and every effort is being made to expedite delivery and installation.
The immediate cause of the accident appears to have been failure of a gas seal on the second-stage of the compressor. This item had been installed as new at the time of the last scheduled shutdown in early May of this year, and according to the manufacturer was rated for one year’s continuous service. Similar seals have given excellent service since commissioning of the platform in 1997 and have been changed out on an annual basis during scheduled shutdowns. On examination of the failed seal however it was found that it was not a genuine spare-part, but a counterfeit produced in the Far East. Assurances had been obtained from Acme Spares Ltd. that the parts were genuine and not counterfeit, but our Maintenance Department was not kept informed of the change in sourcing and was not therefore in a position to query whether the items met specification.
Advice is now being obtained from our Legal Department as to whether a civil case can be made against Acme Spares Ltd. The seals in question have now been replaced on all compressors on Dorothy with genuine items sourced from the manufacturer and steps are in hand to ascertain if counterfeit items have found their way on to other production facilities. If so then further shut-downs and production losses cannot be ruled out. The advisability of making personal changes in the Logistics Department is also under review as a management failure in this department was almost certainly the root cause of the Dorothy explosion.
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