MINES and Petroleum Minister Norman Moore has announced that the Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP) will carry out the final stage of investigations into the Varanus Island gas explosion.
Moore says that Kym Bills and David Agostini, who were jointly-appointed in January to perform the State-Federal inquiry into the incident, are now officially inspectors under the Petroleum Pipelines Act and would co-ordinate the final stage of the investigation.
The Minister says that an investigation into the cause of the June 3, 2008 incident was previously undertaken by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority (NOPSA) and the then Department of Industry and Resources (now the DMP).
Moore claims that that investigation resulted in a report by NOPSA, publicly released by the Minister in October 2008.
“However, that investigation was limited by its reporting time frame and the absence of critical evidence, such as the results from destructive and non-destructive testing of the pipeline. This is now available,” Moore says.
The Minister says finalising the current investigation was vital to fully understand what occurred and to ensure the ongoing safety of the petroleum industry in Western Australia.
The scope of the investigation will include the pertinent sequence of events on Varanus Island during the incident, the likely cause(s) of the incident and any actions and omissions by the operator of the Varanus Island facility, or its contractors, leading up to and during the incident that may have contributed to those events.
The Minister said the Varanus Island Final Investigation Report was expected to be delivered to the DMP by early June 2009.
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