An explosion and resulting oil and gas fires destroyed piper alpha on 6 july 1988, killing 167. Piper alpha timeline of the incident timeline incident. The piper alpha is placed in the north sea, around 193 km northeast of aberdeen. Aggregate nuclear plant failure data is used to produce generic commoncause factors that are specifically for use in the commoncause. During the late 70s, major works were carried out to enable the platform to meet uk government gas export requirements and after this work had been completed, piper alpha was operating in what was known as phase 2 mode operating with the gas conservation module gcm since the end of 1980 up until july 1988. Piper alpha timeline piper alpha was a large offshore rig based 100km off the coast of aberdeen. While there were some significant differences between the the tuna accident and the piper alpha disaster, both demonstrated the need for greater attention to the. A system must be developed to promptly address, resolve and document the incident report findings, recommendations and corrective actions. Radio call sign oes strike team eighteen zero one alpha number assigned by region i fire and rescue coordinator. Piper alpha was an oil production platform in the north sea operated by occidental petroleum caledonia limited.
Piper alpha re ceived and sent to the shore the oil and gas production of a group of platforms. Witness some of the harrowing stories of the 1988 explosion at piper alpha. Piper alpha presentation safety emergency incident. The alpha incident ep by twcor, released 18 october 2019 1. Also, the probability of such an accident could be made arbitrarily small by controlling the level of detail in which the accident is described. See how a series of splitsecond decisions and tragic twists of fate will determine who survives historys deadliest offshore accident. Case study presentation on piper alpha and san juanico incident conference on chemical industrial disaster management cidm. Conference on chemical industrial disaster management cidm. A massive explosion 120 miles out to sea ignites a fight for survival for 226 men. Bibliography building process safety culture tool kit. The accident killed 165 out of 226 crew members and two crew members from the standby vessel sandhaven.
Legacy of accident the cullen inquiry is set up in november 1988. Incident introduction late in the evening of 06 july 1988, a series of explosions ripped through the piper alpha platform in the north sea. This report would examine the company general background and purposes,determines the story behind the incident and indentifies all the causes and effects of the incident. Alpha piper disaster introduction the accident, which occurred on board of the seaward platform piper alpha in july 1988, took lives of 167 people and cost billions of dollars damage of property. Piper alpha was an oil production platform in the north sea approximately 120 miles 190 km northeast of aberdeen, scotland, that was operated by occidental petroleum caledonia limited. The case for safety the north sea piper alpha disaster. The alpha incident is a 1977 american science fiction horror film directed by bill rebane and. The major ingredient for piper alpha accident which are inadequate maintenance and safety procedure, poor risk assessment as well as poor integrity management procedures could have been avoided or the aftermath of the disaster would have been mitigated if it occurred today with the regime of goal setting legislation. This led to the appointment of lord cullen, a senior scottish judge, to hold a public inquiry into the piper alpha.
It began production in 1976, initially as an oilonly platform but later converted to add gas production. The piper alpha disaster which killed 167 workers on 6 july 1988 off the coast of aberdeen is the worldsdeadliest ever oil rig accident. The controversy around it was heightened when a report. What caused the catastrophic nuclear accident in chernobyl. Just a sample of presentation format for piper alpha disaster cause which may help u in preparation for something like this in the future. Scope of the investigation the csb examines the macondo incident from a process safety perspective, integrating into the us offshore sector fundamental safety concepts, such as the hierarchy of controls, human factors, and inherent safety. Download adobe acrobat or click here to download the pdf file. Piper alpha was a large north sea oil platform that started production in 1976. Piper alpha was an oil production platform in the north sea operated by occidental petroleum caledo. On the night of 67 july 1988 a major oil production platform known as piper alpha in the uk sector of the north sea was destroyed by explosion and fire, with the loss of 167 lives. It was caused by a litany of errors and had some striking similarities to last years grenfell tower blaze in london, which killed 72 people.
Learning from the piper alpha accident semantic scholar. Piper alpha presentation free download as powerpoint presentation. The field was discovered in january 1973 and the same year. A microorganism from mars, brought to earth by a space probe, terrorizes passengers in a railroad office. This produced a further massive explosion and fireball that engulfed the piper alpha platform. In this accident 167 men died including 165 out of 226 workers of the platform and 2 members of the rescue crew.
The public inquiry into the piper alpha disaster journal. Accident incident outcome unplanned events and outcomes. The accident that occurred on boardthe offshore platform piper alpha in july 1988 killed 167 peoples and cost billions of dollars inproperty damages. It appears your web browser is not configured to display pdf files. A group of young pilots in a remote region of the canadian. The rig produced oil, gas and condensate primarily propane and was linked to two other drilling platforms via large undersea pipelines. A series of killings occur, with no suspects, the locals soon decide that bigfoot is responsible. Outline about piper alpha platform the happening event timeline cause of the disaster effect of the disaster key failures improvement and prevention conclusion 2. Piper alpha that killed 167 workers in the worlds deadliest offshore oil. The incident report must be made available to affective.
In 1976 the platform began producing oil then was later converted to add gas production to its capabilities. The disaster caused the death of 165 men out of 226 on. Devastating pics show piper alpha disaster that rocked. Piper alpha platform, north sea offshore technology oil and gas. Piper alpha was an oil production platform in the north sea approximately 120 miles 190 km. The university of southern mississippi police department case log media from feb 20, 2020 to apr 24, 2020 date reported. The system uses a letter designation for each exterior side of the emergency incident. Occidental piper alpha s operator, which was found guilty of having inadequate maintenance and safety procedures. Piper alpha was a large oil production platform in the north sea about 170 kilometers northeast of aberdeen. An explosion and subsequent fire on the piper alpha north sea oil production platform on 6 july 1988 claimed 167 lives. Twentyfive years ago the piper alpha disaster changed the oil and gas landscape but have the safety lessons been learnt. Spencer hatfieldb a nasa marshall space flight center, al, usa bbastion technologies msfc, al, usa abstract. It is the biggest workrelated disaster scotland, the united kingdom, the north sea and the oil industry has seen in modern times. Offshore major accident hazards advisory committee omahac safety bulletin.
An explosion and resulting oil and gas fires destroyed piper alpha on 6 july 1988. It concluded that the initial condensate leak was the result of maintenance work being carried out simultaneously on a pump and related safety valve. We also use cookies to collect information about how you use hse. For similar platforms and for a welldefined class of accidents, however, this study is the. Trapped on a burning platform in the middle of the north sea, 167 oil workers lost their lives in the piper alpha disaster, which rocked britain 30 years ago this week. What caused the giant piper alpha oil rig explosion. Accident investigation 4 introduction the incident covered in this study is piper alpha disaster which took place in 1988. North sea operating practices and regulations lie ahead. Piper alpha continued to export just under 120,000 barrels of oil and approximately 33 million standard cubic feet of gas per day. To establish guidelines for dividing the scene of an emergency incident buildingarea. Shortly afterwards, gas alarms activated, the firststage gas compressors tripped and the flare was observed to be much larger than usual. Police department case log media from feb 20, 2020 to apr. Both oil and gas was pumped from the two other platforms to piper alpha and subsequently pumped to. Piper alpha 25 years on have we learned the lessons.
At the time of the piper alpha incident the workforce lived in a world where cuttingedge technology was a fax machine, so the first. Information on the accident piper alpha accident happened in the 6th of july in 1988. Engulfed in fire, over the next few hours most of the oil rig topside modules collapsed into the sea. Piper alpha was an oil production platform on north sea, approximately 110 miles from aberdeen, which was operated by occidental petroleum caledonia ltd. However, the explosion had 35 interrupted communications from piper alpha and considerable intervals from 30 to 60 minutes passed before these other platforms were shut in. It produced oil from 24 wells and in its early life it had also produced gas from two wells. A series of explosions destroyed the piper alpha oil platform in the north sea.