Tommy Andersson
Documentation Project: Searching for Relatives
As part of the documentation project, we have tried to contact the relatives of as many victims as possible from the Alexander L. Kielland disaster. However, some likely no longer have any close living relatives. One of these is Tommy Andersson – the only Swede on the rig. No one we contacted had any memories of him. Who was he? Where did he come from? The questions remained unanswered – until Håvard Klyve Parr took on the case. Here is what he found out:
Childhood and Background
Tommy Andersson (b. 1947) grew up in the Swedish town of Stenungsund as the only child of Johannes and Margareta Andersson. Later, the small family moved to the town of Kungälv, a few miles north of Gothenburg. For a while, Tommy worked as a pastry chef in Stenungsund but later decided to retrain as a welder. A couple of years before the Kielland disaster, he worked as a welder during the construction of the Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant, which became operational in 1980.[i] Tommy’s father recounted that his son had always loved to travel and that his job as a licensed welder gave him “…rich opportunities to travel. Recently, he flew to Bremen for repairs on a ship in the English Channel.”[ii]
When the Kielland disaster struck on March 27, 1980, it had been seven months since Andersson started working for Nicoverken Sverige. Nicoverken was founded in Gothenburg right after World War II by Carl-Olof Nilsson. With the growing demand for maritime transport, the newly established company found success in its business model—sending teams of engineers, welders, and metalworkers aboard seafaring ships. This reduced docking time, and the Swedish company quickly grew into a global enterprise.
Preparation for the Drilling Contract
Andersson’s assignment with Nicoverken brought him aboard Kielland due to fluctuations in the rig market. Alexander L. Kielland had been designed and built for oil drilling, but when completed in 1976, the drilling market was in a downturn. As a result, the rig was converted into a temporary accommodation platform. By the early 1980s, the market had turned around, and Kielland was negotiating a drilling contract with the oil company Shell for work on the British continental shelf. The owner, Stavanger Drilling, planned to replace Kielland as an accommodation rig with its sister rig, Henrik Ibsen. Also originally built at the CFEM shipyard in Dunkirk, Henrik Ibsen had recently been converted into a flotel with 600 beds. The conversion had just been completed at Aker Stord, and on March 26, 1980, the flotel anchored in Tananger for classification and final preparations to relieve Kielland.[iii]
With a tight schedule, preparations for Kielland’s drilling contract had already begun offshore. Nicoverken Norge was hired as part of this conversion. Tommy Andersson was part of a work team led by Leif Skjønhaug:
“We had been commissioned by Stavanger Drilling to assist in converting Alexander Kielland from an accommodation platform to a drilling platform,”[iv] Skjønhaug told the Swedish newspaper Expressen after the disaster.
“We didn’t have enough personnel for the work in Stavanger. That’s why we borrowed Tommy from the company in Gothenburg. He arrived a little over a week before the disaster and joined me and a Finnish colleague on Alexander Kielland. We were preparing the conversion.”[v]
A crew list from the disaster rig during the week before the accident shows that there were three welders from “Nico” aboard Kielland. The list confirms that L. Skjønhaug and T. Markkanen had been on board since February 25.[vi] They had arrived together with R. Nilsson, who left the rig on March 15. That same day, Andersson traveled from Gothenburg to Stavanger.
“He was supposed to do a special job and be home in a week,”[vii] wrote Göteborgs-Posten, which spoke with Tommy’s father. The crew list shows that Tommy first arrived on the platform on March 17. Three days before the disaster, on March 24, Skjønhaug and Finnish Markkanen left the rig.[viii] In his interview with Expressen, Skjønhaug explained that they were waiting for a valve from the U.S., which delayed the work. He saw no reason to stay on the rig himself:
“But Tommy asked if he could stay. There were some welding tasks he could continue with.”[ix]
His choice, partly motivated by a desire for time off during Easter, would prove fatal. His plan was to follow the rig to shore after it was replaced by Henrik Ibsen, but Alexander L. Kielland never made it that far.
Into the Public Eye After the Disaster
Tommy Andersson was the only Swedish citizen to lose his life in the Alexander L. Kielland disaster. Since his assignment on the rig was short-term, few people on board knew him. However, his name became widely known and debated due to questions raised in the media some time after the accident.
In December 1981, major media reports surfaced after a witness came forward, claiming that welding work had been done to repair cracks on Alexander L. Kielland shortly before the disaster.[x] Ivar Garberg, a technical expert for the Kielland Foundation, believed Tommy Andersson was the one who had performed this work.[xi] Stories also circulated that Andersson was one of two welders who had arrived on the rig aboard the supply ship Norino Sun the night before the accident.[xii]
However, these rumors were inconsistent with official crew lists showing that Andersson had been on the platform for weeks before the accident. There is also no documentation confirming that he worked on crack repairs.
The work being done to prepare Alexander L. Kielland for drilling in the British sector before the accident was given little attention in the Norwegian investigation report. However, when the French expert commission conducted its inquiries, they specifically asked why subcontractors for Stavanger Drilling were on board. Tommy Andersson was one of those named.[xiii]
How Stavanger Drilling responded to these questions is unclear in publicly available sources. However, the company did address Andersson’s work in another context. Stavanger Drilling was fined for violating labor laws concerning workers Tommy Andersson and Robbie Morrison. The company contested the fine, arguing that they were not the employers of Andersson and Morrison. They also provided a brief description of Andersson’s work on the rig. In a statement written on behalf of the company, Supreme Court Attorney Georg Scheel explained:
“Andersson was on board the rig to carry out modifications to the mud pipes. Stavanger Drilling had contacted Nicoverken Norge A/S for work related to the mud system.”[xiv]
That such work was performed is also supported by a claim of approximately 2.5 million kroner that Stavanger Drilling filed against Shell for modifications made to the rig while stationed at Ekofisk. This included:
“Modifications to the mud mixing system and standpipe manifold, procurement and partial installation of various equipment, and ‘study of strengthening of cellar deck for 15,000 psi stack’”[xv]
NOTES
[i] Information from Christer Brandt, former colleague of Andersson.
[ii] “Göteborgare katastrofoffer” in Göteborgs-Posten, 31.03.1980.
[iii] “Henrik Ibsen (oljeplattform)” on https://snl.no/Henrik_Ibsen_-_oljeplattform.
[iv] “Tommy bad att få stanna kvar en vecka till…” in Expressen, 31.03.1980.
[v] “Tommy bad att få stanna kvar en vecka till…” in Expressen, 31.03.1980.
[vi] “Alexander L. Kielland” Crew List 19/3 – 27/3 1980. https://media.digitalarkivet.no/view/109842/527.
[vii] “Göteborgare katastrofoffer” in Göteborgs-Posten, 31.03.1980.
[viii] “Alexander L. Kielland” Crew List 19/3 – 27/3 1980. https://media.digitalarkivet.no/view/109842/527.
[ix] “Tommy bad att få stanna kvar en vecka till…” in Expressen, 31.03.1980.
[x] “Alexander L. Kielland: New Investigation” in VG, 10.12.1981.
[xi] “The Welder Was Swedish” in VG, 10.12.1981. (“I believe it was the Swede Tommy Andersson from Kungälv outside Gothenburg who must have carried out any welding work on Kielland before the accident.”)
[xii] Reme, Odd Kristian: Kielland: 89 spørsmål (2023), p. 122.
[xiii] Information from the article “Nine Days Before the Accident, the Insurance Was Increased” in the magazine edition Kiellands dype hemmelighet, Stavanger Aftenblad, 29.10.2016.
[xiv] Re.: “Alexander L. Kielland – Stavanger Drilling II A/S & Co. – Fine.” Dated 29.04.1982. https://media.digitalarkivet.no/view/90940/805.
[xv] “Stavanger Drilling II A/S & Co. Liquidity – Comments.” https://media.digitalarkivet.no/view/90931/757.