Keppel Fined for Lapse in Safety

KEPPEL Shipyard has been fined $20,000 for safety deficiencies that led to a flash fire on board an oil tanker at its Benoi Shipyard in May 2004, where seven workers lost their lives in the incident. The company’s Safety Assessor was also cited and fined.

The accident involved the failure to ensure the work area on tanker was free from crude oil residues. Sparks from metal work within tanker cargo hold are believed to have ignited flammable sludge, which led to the explosion and flash fire.

In its recent Annual Report, the Association of Singapore Marine Industries (ASMI) noted that while the marine industry's Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) improved last year by nearly 7 percent over 2004, to 2.8 accidents per million man-hours, an improvement only due to the increased volume of shipyard activities at Singapore's yards.

Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower (MOM) reported fatal industrial accidents within confined spaces have been increasing rapidly, and safety standards within confined workplaces must become a future priority.