VIC: Esso omitted key part of explosion report: Age

AAP General News (Australia)
02-18-1999
VIC: Esso omitted key part of explosion report: Age

MELBOURNE, Feb 18 AAP - Esso omitted a key finding of its own investigators from a final
report on the cause of an explosion at its Longford gas plant last September that killed two
workers and cut gas supplies to Victoria, The Age reported today.

Esso found that crucial risk assessments to determine potentially dangerous problems at the
plant had not been done, and this was found to be a contributing factor in the explosion, the
paper said.

But the finding was omitted from Esso's final report, it said.

Esso spokesman Ron Webb told the paper it was not unusual for changes to be made between
draft and final reports.

"Obviously the investigators decided after they did their first report that a Hazop (hazard
operability study) assessment would not have identified the problem. You must also remember
the investigation was carried out over a very short space of time," he said.

But a lawyer representing four unions at a royal commission into the explosion said the
apparent sanitising of the report was a matter of concern.

"We are very concerned the findings in the report appear to be sanitised in that critical
parts of the draft are omitted from the final version," lawyer Bernard Murphy said.

AAP gf/bwl

KEYWORD: GAS REPORT

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