Tony Mulcahy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Joe McHugh. First, I wish to point out that the Bill was published after the Government had signed off on it on the morning of 16 June. We were originally due to speak about it last Thursday. I was told the reason for the short notice was the delay in getting guidance from the European Commission on liability issues, yet we have to transpose the Bill into Irish Law by 19 July. Surely the Commission with all of its resources could have given this advice earlier. That is not a reflection on the Minister of State.

This is a technical Bill which follows on from the EU offshore safety directive, Directive 2013/30 EU. One could ask what caused the European Union to introduce the directive. The answer simply is safety. Two particular tragic events have brought home to us why we need such legislation. The European Union reacted to the tragic deaths of 11 oil workers when there was an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon exploration rig in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010. This oil production platform had a crew of 126 at the time of the explosion and the disaster could have been worse and resulted in a greater loss of life. It was also an environmental disaster. We must transpose the Bill into law to prevent such tragedies from happening in European waters. The Deepwater Horizon oil rig which had cost $560 million to build had only been in operation since 2001. It had been designed to operate in deep waters. Some of the oil and gas prospecting companies off the Irish coast also operate in very deep water. In September 2009 the Deepwater Horizon rig had successfully drilled the deepest oil well in history when it drilled to a vertical depth of 35,000 ft., in water that was more than 4,000 ft. deep. The rig was due to move to a new location when the explosion happened. The fireball was seen more than 40 miles away and resulted in the largest ever oil spill in US coastal waters. A US federal judge ruled in January this year that BP was responsible for the discharge of 3.2 million barrels of oil into the gulf. The clean-up could potentially cost $13.7 billion.

In April 2010 the Commission for Energy Regulation, CER, was made responsible for safety regulation after the Petroleum (Exploration and Extraction) Safety Act was passed. It is ironic that the Act was passed when the Deepwater Horizon tragedy was unfolding. Closer to home, on 6 July 1988 the explosion on the Piper Alpha oil rig in the North Sea cost the lives of 167 oil workers. On the morning of 6 July a pressure safety valve was removed from a condensate pump for routine maintenance. The original paperwork stated pump A was due for routine service. It was one of two pumps on the rig used to pump oil 128 miles by pipeline to Scotland for refining. The on-duty engineer filled in a permit which stated pump A was not to be used under any circumstance. The day shift ended at 6 p.m., but, unfortunately, the engineer failed to inform the new shift of the off-line status of pump A. The paperwork was located in another part of the platform. At 9.45 p.m., a simple fault in the gas compression system resulted in a blockage in pump B and the pump could not be restarted. At 9.52 p.m., the shift manager found the original paperwork which stated pump A was due to be serviced, but he did not have the paperwork which stated it was now out of service and not to be used. He turned pump A back on, unaware of what was about to happen. Three minutes later, at 9.55 p.m., gas that flowed through the unsafe pump A leaked out and there was an explosion which caused several fires and further explosions. The flames from the fires could be seen 100 km away. It took three weeks for the fires to be put out by a team led by the famous firefighter, Red Adair. By 12.45 a.m.on the morning of 7 July the complete platform was destroyed, with the loss of 167 lives out of a total crew of 226. A simple breakdown in communication and bad safety procedures caused massive loss of life. That is why we need to have a vigorous safety enforcement regime in European waters to protect both workers and the environment.

The amendment to the 2010 legislation will further strengthen the current regulations governing offshore oil and gas operators. Safety inspections must be regular and robust. I urge the Minister of State to ensure that whatever resources are needed to ensure inspections take place are provided in order that we do not have more tragedies.

I echo the point made on bonds by Senator Mark Daly who has left the Chamber. Having a bond is a good idea to ensure we can deal with the problem of left-over rigs. A fine of up to €3 million is very small money when it comes to the cost of cleaning up following an oil spill. I urge the Minister of State to consider these points when making his concluding remarks.