Inquiries are ongoing after smoke was seen billowing from the decommissioned Ninian Northern platform over the weekend.
The Health and Safety Executive has confirmed that it is making inquiries after being made aware of an “incident” at the Ninian Northern platform which currently is decommissioned at Dales Voe, part of Lerwick harbour.
Plumes of smoke were seen coming from the remains of the oil installation on Saturday afternoon, creating a considerable amount of local interest and concern.
One fire appliance from Lerwick attended but was told by Veolia, the company that is carrying out the decommissioning, that they were not needed.
Lerwick Port Authority, OnePeterson and Veolia were all contacted over the weekend and again on Monday morning with requests for comment and explanation.
In a statement issued late on Monday a Veolia spokesperson said: “We can confirm we had a small contained fire at our Lerwick decommissioning facility on the morning of Saturday 18 September.
“The fire brigade attended the site, but took no action as the site team were already competently dealing with the fire in line with our operational guidelines.
“No staff were injured and site activities continued throughout the day.”
Meanwhile a spokesperson for the HSE said: “HSE is aware of the incident and making inquiries.”
Legs blown off
Ninian Northern arrived at the Dales Voe yard in August 2020 for dismantling by the Veolia-Peterson, which planned to recycle 97% of the materials.
The structure used to serve Canadian operator CNR International’s Ninian field, 100 miles north-east of Shetland.
It was first installed in 1978 and started producing in 1980, reaching its peak of 90,000 barrels per day a year later.