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Total won health and safety 'gold award'
Buncefield trial: Day seven Oil company Total received a 'gold award' for health and safety at the Buncefield terminal three years before the disaster, the High Court heard today.
Depot staff were handed silver jackets emblazoned with Total in celebration of the gong from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, the court was told.
Details of the award emerged in the row between Total and Chevron over who was in charge of the part of the depot where the blast took place.
Jonathan Sumption QC, acting for Chevron, told the court: "After Total received the gold award from ROSPA, a gift to celebrate this event was made to staff.
"It was a silver-coloured fleece jacket with the word Total written on the back."
Total and Chevron were partners in the joint venture Hertfordshire Oil Storage Limited (HOSL), but Chevron is seeking to prove that Total was in fact in control of operations.
In his second day in the witness box, Robert White, who was general manager at the time of the disaster in December 2005, was grilled over working practices the depot.
Mr Sumption told the court 'work instructions' provided to depot staff contained no advice on how to prevent tank overfilling other than to rely on an alarm.
"Am I right in thinking that tank filling was never identified as a critical task?" he asked Mr White.
"Isn't this a large part of what went wrong in 2005? Total never identified tank filling as a critical task."
Mr White replied: "I don't believe it's a large part. It's a contributory factor but there are other issues about this event other than the procedures."
In response to questioning about sticking level gauges, which meant alarms were not triggered, he said: "I knew that sticking gauges on tanks was a common problem, not just at HOSL, but throughout the industry."
Mr Sumption described two separate incidents in 2003 when tanks overfilled because gauges stuck and it was only the activation of a final cut-out switch that prevented a spill.
The court heard the cut-out switch manufactured by TAV Engineering Ltd on tank 912, source of the spill that caused the blast, required a padlock to function.
Mr Sumption asked Mr White: "Were you aware that TAV switches required padlocks to lock them in position?"
Mr White replied: "It's a blur in my memory as to whether I knew the settings of the switches."
Previously Mr Sumption had told the court a report prepared to comply with health and safety leglislation had been the work of Total with no input from HOSL.
"What emerges from that is the total integration of Buncefield operations with the UK group management of Total," he said.
The case continues.
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