Oil and Gas People has been advised that 38 workers on board BP’s Magnus platform have been down manned after an electrical failure crippled the platforms main power supplies and resulted in emergency generators being used to keep critical systems running.

Smoke was observed emitting from an electrical box as power failed on board.

One platform worker advised that two helicopters transported personnel off the platform this evening and a further 3 flights are scheduled tomorrow morning to remove remaining non-essential personnel.

Another worker who wished to remain anonymous advised: “It doesn’t appear that anyone is in immediate danger but it was extremely lucky that no one was in the area at the time the incident broke out”

Staff on board the platform were previously communicating via wi-fi, but wi-fi on board the platform has since went down and no further information from platform workers is available.

A spokesperson for BP confirmed that emergency procedures have been activated and the installation is running on emergency generators. 38 workers have so far been down-manned with a further 140 remaining on board. BP was unable to advise whether further workers would be down-manned tomorrow.