Valaris receives tenth UK safety warning in five years and fined over worker’s death

OFFSHORE drilling rig contractor Valaris has received its tenth UK safety warning in less than five years, while one of its subsidiaries has been fined following the death of a worker on a North Sea rig in 2023. 

The latest improvement notice was served by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) last month after a contractor suffered serious injuries on the Valaris 72 jack-up rig in April. The worker fractured their skull, jaw and collarbone after being struck by three tubulars being repositioned on the cantilever deck. 

HSE said operator Ensco Offshore, a wholly owned subsidiary of US-based Valaris, had “failed to properly supervise” the lifting operation. Among its findings, the regulator said Ensco failed to ensure there were sufficient personal and samson posts in place prior to the manoeuvre. 

Separately, Ensco has been fined £287,000 (US$385,000), including a £20,000 victim surcharge, following an HSE investigation into the death of offshore worker Jason Thomas on the Valaris 121 rig in 2023. 

Thomas, 50, fell through an insecure deck grating while the rig was being towed to Dundee. HSE found the grating was not fixed in accordance with the manufacturer’s specification and that wave action caused it to detach. His body was never recovered. 

Principal inspector Steven Hanson Hall described Thomas as “an experienced offshore worker who lost his life in the most unimaginable way possible”. 

“Had the company taken relatively simple measures to identify and control the underlying risks, particularly during the rig move, it is highly likely the incident would never have occurred and Jason would have returned home,” Hall added.

A lawyer representing Ensco extended their “sincere condolences” to Thomas’s family during court proceedings earlier this month, the Press & Journal reported. In a statement last year, the company said safety and staff wellbeing remained its “utmost priority”. 

Patterns of safety concerns

Issues with Valaris 121’s gratings have persisted since Thomas’s death. Last November, 32-year-old Lee Hulse died after falling 80 ft from a crane cab when he stepped on to an area where grating had been removed for cleaning. 

The latest notice on Valaris 72 also follows a series of lifting-related incidents. In January 2024, a crane wire rope became displaced from its sheave on Valaris 121, with a similar incident occurring on another Valaris rig the following month.

Over the past five years, Ensco has been served ten improvement notices, including four related to lifting operations, two concerning unsecured gratings and two linked to asbestos management. The company was also warned in 2022 after the unplanned venting of 6,040 kg of hydrocarbon gas. 

Valaris is currently expected to be acquired by Transocean in a US$5.8bn deal that would create an offshore drilling company valued at around US$17bn.