Sinopec Shengli Oil Field Offshore Platform Inclined No Oil Leakage Occurred

At 18:52 on September 7th, during the operation of No. 3 platform of Sinopec Shengli Oilfield in Dongying, Shandong Province, in the shallow sea area of ​​Bohai Bay, typhoon “Agate” affected the platform and tilted. 36 workers were in distress, including 4 people. Falling into water.

Yesterday (September 8th), Lu Taichang, chief of the news department of Shengli Oil Field Propaganda Department, said in an interview with the “Daily Economic News” that the accident was not caused by humans and the wellhead being repaired by the workover platform No. 3 was closed. No oil spill accident occurred. As of the time of the press release, 2 of the 4 drowning people had been rescued, while 2 Others were still searching.

Two staff members are missing

According to Sinopec, on the evening of September 7, the typhoon "Agate" set off a gust of wind at a maximum of 9 and a wave height of nearly 4 meters. The giant waves caused the tilting of the workover platform No. 3, causing four crew members to fall into the sea.

After the accident, Sinopec and Shengli Oilfield started emergency plans and formulated a rescue plan. At 7 o'clock that night, Shengli Oilfield dispatched high-power tugboats such as 291 and 292 to search and rescue the incident site. Due to the large wind power on site, rescue ships cannot stop at the operation platform.

At 21:58, Shengli Oil Field Coordinated CITIC Offshore Helicopter Co., Ltd., transferred two helicopters, and immediately reached the platform to search for missing persons. At the same time, six low-power, light-drawing tugboats were also reserved. At the same time, the platform well valves were closed to prevent secondary accidents such as marine pollution.

After receiving the report, the Ministry of Transport requested the Maritime Search and Rescue Center of Shandong Province and Tianjin Municipality to fully assist the persons in distress.

Shengli Oilfield announced that the oil well valve of the operating platform has been closed, the platform has remained stable, and 34 people on the platform are no longer in danger. If the platform continues to tilt, the Maritime Search and Rescue Center will coordinate the rescue preparation after the personnel fall into the water.

At present, the Maritime Law Enforcement Ships under the Ministry of Transport coordinated by the China Maritime Search and Rescue Center “Haishu 061”, “Haishi 0601”, the professional salvage ship “Dezhi” and the engineering ship “Haiyang Petroleum 253” are rushing all the way to the incident area. . The rescue operation is still in progress.

As of 8:10 on September 8, after emergency search and rescue, a total of 34 people were rescued. Two of the four people who had fallen into the water were rescued, and the rescued person was immediately sent to nearby places. After initial inspection, vital signs were normal.

As of press time, the other two are still searching.

No oil spill occurred

Lu Taichang stated that the No. 3 platform is not a drilling platform, nor is it a crude oil exploitation platform, but a workover platform. It specializes in offshore oil well maintenance operations and was put into use in June 2002. In the event of an accident on the platform, an offshore oil well was being repaired in the shallow waters of the Bohai Bay. The oil well was closed during maintenance and there would be no problem of crude oil leakage.

Since 2002, the annual production of offshore crude oil in Shengli Oil Field has been stable at more than 2.1 million tons, making it the largest shallow oil field in China. "Daily Economic News" was informed that Shengli Offshore Oilfield has built and put into operation 96 oil production platforms, 129 subsea pipelines, a total length of 222.8 kilometers, and 480 development wells. As the exploration and development process continues to accelerate, pressures for safety and environmental protection are also increasing.

According to industry experts, there are more and more platforms and submarine pipelines near the end of life of offshore oilfields, and the safety hazards caused by outdated equipment have increased. Due to the inexperience of offshore oilfield development, they can only adopt the rolling development mode of exploration and construction. There are few overall considerations, resulting in unreasonable layout of platforms, submarine pipelines, and submarine cables, and there are hidden dangers in safety and environmental protection. With the implementation of maritime adjustment plans, this situation will be more complicated.

A related person from Shengli Oilfield stated that since the beginning of this year, the oilfield has added 12 projects such as the safety protection and management of submarine pipelines to the hidden danger management plan. At present, six projects including the safety and protection of submarine pipelines and the reconnaissance of submarine oil pipelines have already completed tendering and tendering work. The remaining projects are preparing bids and bids and are planned to be completed by the end of October.