Icy experience

Trade unionist Roy Erling Furre knows full well how cold and darkness drain a person’s energy. He is now seeking the highest possible safety for petroleum activities in Norway’s far north.

High-speed ferry Sleipner ran into the Store Bloksen reef off Ryvarden Lighthouse north of Haugesund at 19.06 on 26 November 1999. A normal evening suddenly became an icy hell.

Sixteen lives were lost. Furre himself learnt what it is like to lie in freezing water, see others die and hope desperately to survive. Although 13 years have passed, he remembers every detail.

“Sleipner took in water little by little,” he recalls. “Then its stern suddenly rose in the air and the ferry dived beneath the waves like a speeding train.”

Shouts and screams filled the air as the passengers ended up in the sea, adds Furre, who is currently deputy leader of the Norwegian Union of Energy Workers (Safe).

Cold chaos

The first rescue helicopter arrived 20 minutes after the ferry had sunk, and the medical officer on board said later that he saw lights everywhere as they neared the scene.

“The helicopter crew had a shock when they got closer and realised that each of the lights in the water was someone in a lifejacket,” says Furre.

“They thought the passengers had taken to the liferafts. Now they suddenly appreciated that they faced a big job.”

Chaos reigned as Sleipner was evacuated. The ferry carried two liferafts with space for all the passengers, but this equipment functioned only on paper.

After the collision, it proved impossible to launch the rafts. They had been positioned at the waterline, and the crew were unable to free them.

Nor had the personnel received any training in how to launch the rafts, or been given the expertise or equipment needed to do the job in a safe manner.

The people who ended up in the sea were quickly spread around by the wind and waves. Furre initially found himself on his own in high waves and pitch darkness.

Eventually, he saw two others who were clutching a sofa. “I swam across and got hold of the sofa, too. We lay and talked a little, but soon hadn’t the energy to carry on a conversation.

“Six of us were ultimately congregated together in the water, But the sofa didn’t have much buoyancy. Three of the latecomers let go and lay floating in the sea nearby.”

Everyone was extremely chilled, and fighting to stay alive. “One of those clutching the sofa faded away,” Furre says. “Without me noticing, he vanished, sank into the sea and died.”

Useless

He adds that the lifejackets provided on the ferry were very poor quality – they tore, broke and almost disintegrated.

“Though supposedly approved to Norway’s maritime regulations, the jackets were useless. Their cords were smooth, for instance, and came undone in the motion of the waves.

“In order to get any benefit from the buoyancy pads, you had to clutch them with your arms. You might just as well use an empty lemonade bottle as a buoyancy aid.

“Everything on Sleipner was approved in accordance with the maritime regulations – but none of it worked.”

He fought for his life for about 40 minutes until a boat came by and threw out a raft. Furre and three others who were nearby reached it. But two of the three who had clutched the sofa died.

Furre has devoted much energy to dealing with his experiences on that fateful evening and night, and later headed the support group for the survivors and the bereaved.

As deputy leader of Safe, he was determined to apply the lessons learnt constructively to the work on emergency preparedness and safety management in the petroleum sector.

Since the accident, for instance, he has been a driving force in the development and improvement of survival suits for offshore workers.

Furre has participated during recent years in three different projects related to these garments – more recently in cooperation with oil company Eni.

He was also a member of the Norwegian Maritime Authority’s action team on personal lifesaving aids, and participated during 2002 in testing all lifejacket makes used in Norway.

“There was a lot of poor equipment on the market,” he notes. “Everything was approved in compliance with the requirements. But much of it quite simply didn’t work.”

Furre wants safety and emergency work to concentrate on prevention and damage limitation, and believes insufficient lessons have been drawn from the mistakes made on Sleipner.

“It was very disappointing for both the survivors and the bereaved that the commission of inquiry found navigational error to be the sole cause of the accident,” he notes.

“The underlying systemic error, which I feel was the real reason, was ignored by the investigators. Everything had failed – vessel design, planning, expertise, crew training and the way the owner pursued health, safety and environmental work.”

Northern caution

Given his own experience, Furre has mixed feelings about the northward shift of Norway’s offshore industry, despite the great attention it devotes to safety.

The far north of the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS), particularly the Barents Sea, is characterised by long distances, lack of infrastructure and winter darkness.

Combined with a tough climate and low air temperatures, these conditions create challenges in a number of areas – including the working environment and emergency preparedness.

In a crisis, great distances and a challenging climate would make evacuation of personnel complicated and time-consuming than in other parts of the NCS.

“On the one hand, we’re obviously proud of our industry,” Furre says. “On the other, the commitment to the far north creates a lot of concern.

“We must move very cautiously in vulnerable areas – and the safety aspect becomes more important than ever.”

He points out that extreme cold, icing and long distances present major challenges for technological solutions, knowledge and expertise, emergency response and infrastructure.

That prompts a clear call to government and operators: “When developing the first fields in the toughest areas, building up a strong and safe infrastructure is important for us in Safe.

“The new far northern areas are so remote from land that you can’t get back and forth with a helicopter if a serious accident happens.

“So we want the first major projects to include a secure port and an intermediate landing station where the challenges can be managed.

“We must present clear demands from the start, so that future developments can be pursued in a secure manner.”

Double barriers

Furre also wants far northern operations to be safeguarded with the aid of special double barriers, which could be the only hope for people in certain emergencies.

“We envisage having two mobile units present during drilling, for example,” he explains. “If one runs into problems, the other can intervene and drill a relief well.

“At the same time, it’s desirable that a standby vessel is ready to deal with a possible incident and to provide other support.”

In his view, a worst-case scenario must be developed in order to save life and limit harm to the environment.

“I think it’s fully possible to overcome the challenges posed by far northern operations if clear requirements are set for emergency response and resources. But this is a matter of urgency, given the way operations in that part of the NCS are expanding.”