Record fine for oil giant
28 Apr 05
Shell fined record sum for North Sea safety breaches which led to two deaths
Oil giant Shell has been fined a record £900,000 for safety breaches that led to the death of two workers on an offshore platform.
Keith Moncrieff from Dundee and Fife man Sean McCue died when they were exposed to dangerous gases on the Brent Bravo platform in September 2003. The two had gone inside a leg of the platform to inspect a temporary patch - which had been in place for 18 months - when defective valves sent the gases into the area where they were working.
The sum is the largest a single company has been fined for an offshore incident.
Sheriff Patrick Davies said that there had been a "catalogue of errors" by the oil company. He discounted the fine imposed by 10% because of the company's early guilty plea.