Saturday, November 28, 2009

The End of Piper Alpha

The Aftermath

It was a grim episode in the North Seas history and to this day many other oil workers that knew friends that perished on board remark upon it as the survivors still live with that harrowing night. The Cullen Report that followed concluded in 1990 and decreed that new safe systems of work offshore were needed. A massive fine was also levied against the Tartan Platforms operators for greedily not closing the sub-sea valves of the pipelines (which fed Piper Alpha's fires greatly).

The safety improvements were legion, no longer could oil platforms undertake the commercially aggressive mentality of comprehensive overhauls, replacements and upgrades during 'live' operation. Instead 'shutdown' periods would be scheduled and used for massive constructions activities. This spelled the end for the large construction core crews that roamed the platform and led to freelance construction personnel mobilising during a given 'shut-down' season.

An oil platforms operations room, which had previously been sited close to the production zones for overseeing was now relocated. Sited instead close to, or indeed within the accommodation module which was as far as possible from the oil production areas.

Despite alcohol not being a factor the 'Two-can rule' for alcohol was abolished and all oil platforms made alcohol-free zones. Rumours persist of the occasional home-made still and the OIMs domain being excempt however!

Aberdeen has an intricate connection to the North Sea and in the aftermath of Piper Alpha the city erected a memorial to the tragedy. Nearly twenty years later the Piper Alpha's legacy was put to the test. A fire broke out on board the Thistle Platform.

The platform was live, like the Piper Alpha was, and once the news broke on-air many viewers shuddered fearing another catastrophe was about to unfold. The fire-crews assembled and were able to get to the scene within oil production quickly. As the evacuation orders went out the Battle for the Thistle Platform began. After fighting the fierce blaze for several hours it was put out and the platform was safe. The Thistle Platform would be no Piper Alpha and there were no deaths or reported injuries, the safety record on the North Sea remains excellent. It seems the commercially balanced system of approach is working. Long may it stay that way.

Lowland Cavalier to the Rescue!


A Fast Rescue Craft from the Lowland Cavalier rescued several survivors but an explosion killed two of the crew thus blunting their efforts. The firefighting ship Tharos was driven off when the heat began to melt steel on board ship itself! It could only return after two hours of fighting the flames and the Tartans pipeline (feeding the flames) was ruptured. No rescue helicopter could risk landing land due high winds and further gas and pipeline rupture which caused flames of over 100 meters to soar up into the sky.
The leaping survivors made a harsh but wise choice in abandoning the fireproof refuge, for about an hour later the entire accommodation module along with other parts of the platform crashed into the sea.

Red Adair

Eventually the legendary oil firefighter Red Adair, fighting gale force winds put the flames out. 167 men were killed and there were only 62 survivors. There had been an earlier oil platform disaster in 1980 when a Norwegian platform collapsed into the sea, but this was a structural issue whereas the Piper Alpha disaster resulted from a safety lapse, no matter how small the root. In the weeks that followed Royal Navy Demolition Divers detonated shaped charges on the subsea jacket of the Piper Alpha, thus allowing the North Sea to claim it.

Piper Alpha Engulfed


The Rescue Attempts

Workers on the nearby Claymore and Tartan platform looked on in horror as the Piper Alpha erupted into flames. The heat and flame killed many, and the control room was destroyed paralysing the command structure and evactuation plans, although such was the heat and flames that the launching of the rescue craft was near-impossible. Two fearless oil workers donned fire fighting gear and attempted a do-or-die mission below deck to manually activate the deluge system (A ferocious firefighting system. The automatic activation of which which had controversially been deactivated due to divers working in the vicinity of the platform).

They both rushed at speed into the flames never to be never seen again.
One survivor desperate to flee rushed onto the helideck where the heat instantly melted his hard hat as he plunged over 200 feet to the sea. Other survivors seeing the smoke begin to penetrate the 'safe refuge' module abandoned hope of helicopter rescue and took the plunge into the sea.

The stormy seas meant conditions in the water were awful, but the jumpers from the Piper Alpha were fortunate that it meant the agitated sea state effected a softer landing. Paradoxically in a flat sea state or near-calm the effects of jumping in would of been similar to breaking through concrete. This factor undoubtably saved lives and injuries.

Piper Alpha Disaster


A Major Oil Producer

Piper Alpha was part of a chain of important offshore production platforms. It was large and responsible for hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil passing through its pipelines each day. But the speed of production perhaps also held an achilles heel. In the 1980s important construction work such as replacing spools, valves and the like was done 'on-the-fly', that is to say the platform would remain 'live' while full-scale upgrading/replacing activity would be underway. A commercially aggressive system that undoubtably keeps the platform at optimal performance with the minimal of downtime but also one that suddenly and unexpectantly exposed a terrible flaw when multiple events arose and the wrong combination of decisions took place.

Like many tragedies; a combination of faults leading to the terrible a chain reaction of events. At the end of a busy dayshift an engineer going off-shift failed to pass on important information verbally, instead he left the work permit (detailing that a compressor was not to be activated) on the desk next to control room supervisor who absently filed it away.

As the nightshift began, the main compressor suddenly failed. Not wishing for the platforms drilling equipment to fail (very expensive if it did so) the duty control manager searched and found on a different file the secondary compressor was good for operation. It wasn't, the pipework was missing that went to the compressor and the blank section that had been fitted to prevent moisture and gas vapour was only fitted loosely. The compressor was turned on. Within seconds gas began escape from the blanked-off pipework. Several minutes passed and suddenly a source of ignition (possibly welding) triggered a series of catastrophic explosions erupted, killing the first of the workers.