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.

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.