Piper Alpha

[zeolite]

On Wednesday it will be 28 years since the gas compressor A failed filling the compressor room with gas which exploded causing a chain reaction that destroyed the rusty bucket of an oil platform called the Piper Alpha and killed 165 rig personnel and 2 standby workers.
I just finished a presentation for a safety meeting on Friday about this. I worked in the Piper in March/April 1988 and I knew a lot of the guys who were killed. Let us not forget the lessons that were learned by Lord Cullen, let us not forget those ordinary guys who became statistics and let us not forget how easy it is to get lazy,complacent or just too cheap to keep ourselves safe!

[burnie]

Well put, I fear that now the EU is longer calling the shots, some unscrupulous individuals will be tempted to cut corners in the pursuit of profit.

[Robbie]

Very well said. Never mind EU membership, the current market conditions mean there is risk that some will take the cheaper options at the expense of safety.

[Billy]

My next door neighbour Bob Vernon was lost that night.

He was awarded a posthumous medal for going back to try and save some of the guys and that was the last time he was seen.
Occidental tried to pin it on him for a while before the investigation was completed.

One of the nicest guys you could meet and the best neighbour we have ever had.

Billy

[Bobfly]

Good sentiments and well said. It always seems, sadly, that it takes some terrible event to drive home what should be second nature.

[zeolite]

I don't know if a safety mentality s second nature. I think it is up to management to put training in place to instill that so it becomes second nature.

I have developed my own set of rules.

    1. Don't panic
    2. Don't do something stupid
    3. Do pay attention to the detail. All the time, every time.

Stick to those and insist that others stick to those and then you will be fine.

[zeolite]

I posted this on facebook but i know many of you don't use it so...

Today is a significant anniversary for me. 28 years ago I was on the Ninian South platform in the Northern North Sea having my midnight meal. I was working as a mud logger for a company called Exlog in my first year of working offshore. I was getting stuck into my dinner when I heard on the radio (BBC Radio 2 was the only 24 hour news outlet then) about an explosion in the central North Sea. It sounded bad and every one was concerned about it. It turned out to be a massive explosion that killed 167 people.
My second ever trip offshore was in March 1988 was to refit a mud logging unit on the Piper Alpha and it was a massive job. The unit was in the sack room and had cables running everywhere. I spent hours swinging from cable racks in the pit room and running cables through so-called bulkheads. I had that 3 week trip and two weeks later I had a two week trip actually drilling some well bore. The place was a dump. It was old and rusty and dirty but the crew were friendly and that is how we could cope. I suppose it felt particularly bad after my first trip to the brand new Clyde platform. After shift we played pool and table tennis and watched VHS videos. There was no cable or internet or even a way of calling home apart from the radio-telephone. We made our own entertainment.
I had met a few of the guys who were on that rig that night 28 years ago. Exlog lost all four of their crew. The drill crew that we had a table tennis league with lost almost all of their guys. I still remember some of their faces and particularly their singing!
I was just a tourist on the Piper Alpha. Some guys had been on their since the rig was commissioned in 1976 but I won't forget it and wont let others forget it either. My safety moment on Friday will be about this rig and its people and its tragedy. most importantly it will be about what we learned and why we shouldn't forget!

[tomcatin]

Ian

I am not sure whether it is appropriate to describe that as a great series of posts, when they are tinged with such sadness and personal impact they have really hit the mark with me.

Such industrial disasters register with public for the duration of the news cycle before becoming just another iconic event (just like the same years Lockerbie Bombing) but to the communities directly involved they are lasting and ever present. Piper Alpha's community wasn't a geographic community but a whole community of souls spending weeks at a time in remote and isolated workplaces where safety should have been the highest priority. The findings of the Cullen Inquiry could hardly have brought comfort to you guys sat out on the rigs

Coming from generations of colliers and being once upon a time mining engineer I have a clear understanding that progress in health and safety in the workplace has only been earned from the lessons from sacrifice made by fellow workers. The coal industry thanks to its woeful history of industrial sacrifice has lead the way in health and safety legislation. The 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act used the 1956 Mines and Quarries Act as a template. You can trace the evolution of coal mining legislation from one disaster to another (for example the requirements for two means of access and egress from the workplace in modern legislation has its origins in the findings of the inquiry into the Hartley Colliery disaster of 1862 where 204 souls where lost when following an explosion the pump beam blocked access through the only shaft). With this in mind your previous comment referencing your own behavioural approach to safety is so pertinent ....... change the way workers and their employers approach safety is probably the only way to break this vicious cycle of learning from disastrous mistakes or ignorance.

This year also represents the 150th anniversary of the disaster at the Oaks Colliery, Barnsley when on the 12th December 1866 334 men/boys were killed in an explosion a further 27 rescuers were killed in a secondary explosion. The cost of this disaster still resonates in South Yorkshire and will be commemorated by the local community on its anniversary.

I still recall the images of horror on the BBC news of Piper Alpha ........ hopefully industry will begin to understand that its better to change the culture than deal with these events

[zeolite]

Tomcatin

A thoughtful response and you have hit the nail on the head as regards where I am at right now. The oil industry is in a terrible state and I may very soon be forced to leave it. The cost-cutting that is going on is brutal and although I can understand it, some of the cuts ARE going to hurt safety. The loss of experienced personnel (which will be replaced with cheaper inexperienced personnel) will affect the general culture. The reduction in training programs will have a similar affect. Gradually we will forget the lessons of the past. The old lags like myself have to make noises to keep the message fresh. Get complacent and you will get hurt.

Stay sharp and stay safe.