£100,000 fine over oil spill at Grangemouth

THE operator of the Grangemouth refinery has been fined £100,000 after a crude oil release from a pipeline.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said yesterday's fine followed the uncontrolled release at the site on the Firth of Forth on 7 May, 2008.

The incident happened when a pipeline containing crude oil became over-pressurised as a result of a process known as thermal expansion. The HSE said the failure of the pipeline caused "extremely flammable" crude oil to spray out across a nearby pump-house and adjacent pipelines containing other "dangerous substances".

An investigation found that operator INEOS had been aware of the risks from thermal expansion, but chose to rely on staff to manually drain crude oil from the pipeline instead of installing engineering controls.

The HSE said Falkirk Sheriff Court heard that crude oil drained from the pipeline was stored in a metal skip not designed for the safe storage of an extremely flammable substance, so the risk of fire and explosion was "increased".

After the hearing, HSE's investigating inspector Brian Kennedy said: "The crude oil involved in this incident was extremely flammable and had the potential to result in serious injury had there been a fire or explosion."

INEOS Manufacturing Scotland Ltd, of Bo'ness Road, Grangemouth, was fined 100,000 after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

An INEOS spokesman said: "The leak was quickly identified and isolated with temporary barriers put in place to contain the small amount of oil. This ensured that the leak was quickly cleaned up, minimising any risk to the local environment and to anyone working nearby."