PIPER ALPHA RESEARCH

ESSAY

The Piper Alpha was a North Sea offshore oil and gas platform which was destroyed by a massive explosion
and fire on July 8th, 1988. It was discovered and operated by Occidental Petroleum (Caledonia) Ltd. that was
owned by the OPCAL joint venture (1972), which began production in 1976. It was located 193km (120 miles)
north east from the city of Aberdeen in Scotland and constructed by McDermott Engineering. Originally, the
platform was constructed to implement oil production and later upgraded to simultaneously facilitate the
production of gas (in the late 1980).
The Piper Alpha was diagnosed to be destroyed primarily due to the leaking of condensates (natural gas liquid
NGL) from two condensate pumps which had failed via faultily and manual assembling of the pump, by day
shift maintenance workmen, where they removed one of the gas pressure safety valve and temporarily sealed it
with a blind flange. Along with that, the fire water system was set to be controlled manual for diving operations.
These issues were not notified to the night shift workmen who were unaware of the ongoing maintenance work,
thus, they carried out their work ordinarily. As a result, the blind flange and firewalls failed to handle the
pressure hence lead to several explosions.
Upon analysis of the Piper Alpha tragedy, a number of factors contributed to the severity of the incident: Poor
handovers such as no clear procedure for shift handover, the permit-to-work system being inadequate (i.e. the
PTW system become too relaxed, no verbal confirmation taking place at shift handovers), fire walls werent
made to oil fire specifications, lack of training for workers, safety policy and procedures were in placed but not
practiced. Evacuation procedure had not been practiced properly; no drills or exercises were conducted to test
emergency preparedness. Poor management system, no provisions of emergency response training, Emergency
induction was not administered or inconsistently given and no backup procedures in case of control room
disarray.
After inquiry of the Piper Alpha incident, the following recommendations if were put into practice at that time
may have constrain the amount of devastation. Provisions such as adequately trained PTW personnel, Improve
shift handover and control of suspended PTW, Isolations of Mechanical and Electrical PTW works men remain
in force until maintenance work is completed, isolation procedures such as lock-out and tag-out of isolation
valves and Regulatory authority should maintain a data base of hydrocarbon leaks, spills and ignitions.. Also,
Management, mainly the first line supervisor should ensure that the entire workforce are actively involved in
safety on a daily bases. Safety operating procedures should be reviewed and revised to ensure uttermost
compliance.
There should have been control room operators trained and qualified for their duties, 24 hours monitoring of
control rooms and operators must be proficient in handling emergencies. There should be minimal connections
of pipelines to platforms, passive fire protection of risers. Quick access to Emergency shutdown valves (ESDV)
and Sub Sea Isolation Valves (SSIVs) and also Availability to fire water deluge system.
Finally simple evacuation and escape routes should have been proposed. Evacuation systems such as:
helicopters or lifeboats stand-by boats, SAR (search and rescue), ladders, steps, ropes etc. Should of been
issued.