Crab, I think if you are not well informed you should maybe hold back on your sweeping statements
!
If my information is correct (and I think it is!) then there is no and never was a 30 minute target, where did you get that information from? For BP the target I believe is 2h to a place of safety (and the calculation includes transit times). If you asked some of the offshore workers there actually have been quite a number of elaborate exercises to prove this included all sea states up to and including 6. The UK HSE have been quite insistent on this... People are not as stupid as you make them out to be, even if they are working for the government
Jim: You are of course correct however the loss here is that there will no longer be an offshore based aircraft. No matter how new and fast the aircraft in Sumburgh, Sola and possibly Aberdeen are, that advantage is lost.