Fall/Fatality during P&A/Platform Abandonment:
Supervision, Operational, Equipment and Organization Errors

An offshore roustabout was fatally injured while assisting P&A’ing wells and decommissioning a production platform. The P&A operation was being conducted on the main deck of the platform, using a power swivel skid, casing jack and crane in conjunction with other equipment.
The accident occurred at night while the power swivel was being moved from atop the well with the roustabout acting as a rigger helping control the load. When the power swivel was lifted, the roustabout stepped, or was dragged by the load, into the well-access opening in the deck that was exposed by the movement of the power swivel and fell to his death. Night medevac callout was delayed due to confusion in emergency planning.

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