Comprehensively prepared to respond in the event of an emergency

On Thursday, 11 January, 2007, Tullow’s CMT was mobilised to deal with a situation with potentially major implications for the Group’s business.

Late in the afternoon that day, the control room on the ConocoPhillips-operated Murdoch platform in the SNS received a report that a 4,500 tonne commercial vessel had suffered engine failure and was drifting without power in a westerly force 10 gale, resulting in strong seas and severe weather conditions.

A quick assessment of the situation concluded that there was potential for a collision between the vessel and the unmanned Boulton platform where Tullow has an equity interest, and accordingly, production was shut down there promptly at 16:00.

The vessel initially deployed its anchor to arrest its rate of drift, but this was judged to present a significant risk to several major sub-sea gas pipelines and was abandoned. As a consequence, the vessel continued to drift and it became apparent that there was a potential collision risk with the manned Murdoch platform complex, which is the gas transportation hub through which all the Caister Murdoch System (CMS) gas passes, including the Schooner and Ketch production from Tullow.

In response to the increasing risk to the Murdoch platform, at 18:15, 20 people were evacuated by the RAF to nearby facilities including the Tullow-operated Ensco 101.

A skeleton crew of 10 remained to complete the full shut down of the complex. These people were evacuated at 21:30. By 22:00 it was apparent that the vessel had missed the Murdoch platform. The situation was monitored very closely and around midnight the vessel passed a few hundred metres north of the Caister platform and out of immediate danger to facilities in the area.

Tullow supported the ConocoPhillips emergency response from its nearby facilities and mobilised the Crisis Management facility in London as a precaution, should the situation deteriorate.

On the morning on 12 January, crews were remobilised onto the Murdoch complex and the process of restarting systems began. On 12 January, the Murdoch field and CMSIII Northern fields were restored to production. Satellite crews were mobilised and production from the Boulton, Caister and Munroe fields was restored on 13 January.