A full-scale evacuation from a North Sea oil rig was sparked after a female employee apparently told colleagues of a dream she had about a bomb being on the platform.

Police began an investigation after the evacuation of 161 of the more than 500 people on the Safe Scandinavia, a floating accommodation block that forms part of an oil installation 130 miles north of Aberdeen. Police were waiting to question the woman, 23, last night after she was detained by the rig’s manager and flown to the mainland.

Jake Molloy, general secretary of the OILC union, called the evacuation “complete madness”. He said: “This girl had a dream about a bomb being on board and she was a bit shaken. She told other people and before long it had grown arms and legs. The next thing, workers were being evacuated.”

Bomb disposal experts were placed on stand-by and up to a dozen RAF, coastguard and civilian helicopters scrambled to the rig after the decision to evacuate all personnel was taken by the operators at 9.20am. Police emphasised that the incident was “not considered terrorism-related”. By the time the alert was later declared a hoax, workers had been airlifted from the platform to two nearby rigs.

Britannia Operator, which operates the Safe Scandinavia “flotel”, said in a statement: “The down-man occurred following allegations by a worker on the Safe Scandinavia that there was a possible suspicious device on the flotel. A thorough search of the Safe Scandinavia has revealed nothing suspicious and it has now been deemed safe for workers to return to normal operations. The 161 workers who had been earlier flown to the neighbouring Alba and Armada platforms are now returning.” It added that nobody was hurt during the incident.

Kathy McGill, Britannia Operator’s managing director, said: “We are very relieved that this has turned out to be a false alarm, but we obviously had to treat it seriously.”

The operation, which lasted more than five hours and involved the RAF, coastguard and police, is estimated to have cost up to £500,000.

Although the oil industry is dominated by men, an increasing number of women are employed off-shore, mostly in support services, such as catering and housekeeping.

Gary Hay, 26, who works on a neighbouring platform, said that security at the heliport from which workers were flown out to rigs was always tight. “The check-in is quite thorough,” he said. “You get sent to a booth with a member of security and they will go through the bags. The Government has a system for screening people to work in high-risk areas. I have never heard of any security threats off-shore.”

Safe Scandinavia

1984 The year of the rig’s construction
539 The number of people on board at the time of the evacuation
161 The number of people evacuated
583 The number of beds on board 130 miles the installation’s position northeast of Aberdeen

Source: rigzone.com, agencies

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