An Investigation on Piper Alpha Disaster

Introduction

Piper Alpha was an oil production platform in the North Sea, which was operated by an Occidental
Petroleum Limited named. It began production in 1976, initially as an oil-only platform but later
converted to add gas production.

An explosion and resulting oil and gas fires destroyed Piper Alpha on 6 July 1988; killing 167
people along with the total insured loss was about 3.4 billion dollars. It is considered one of the
costliest manmade catastrophes ever.

Reasons behind the disaster

The root cause of the disaster was inadequate maintenance and safety procedures. According to
the Inquiry committee established, the accident was primarily caused by maintenance work
simultaneously carried out on one of the high-pressure condensate pumps and a safety valve
leading to leak in condensates.

There was a problem in the Methanol system, which resulted to one of the pumps, malfunctioned
and stopped working. The other pump reserved for the system was under maintenance. Its safety
control valve had been removed and a metal disc was loosely fitted. There was a fatal error in the
Permit to Work system which was identified later in investigation. The permits for for valve and
pump were in different boxes. The workers present did not know that safety valve was missing
for the pump. The irresponsible maintenance of workers and lack of duty awareness lead to the
catastrophe.
In addition, erroneous design was also responsible to some extent. The sensitive areas were not
located properly.
Moreover, there were some immediate causes also

 A lack of communication during the shift change

 The leakage of condensate pipe which was ignited causing an explosion
 The heat ruptured the riser of gas pipelines from another installation
 The firewalls failing to cope with the ensuing explotion.

Measures should have been introduced

 The sensitive areas should have been run under high degree of safety.
 The communication among the employees should have been more precise.
 Emergency evacuation process during the accident period might have lessened human
costs.

Conclusion
The proper process and structural design along with strict maintenance of safety procedures must
be ensured in industries to minimize or eliminate risks of this kind of industrial disasters.

By
Md. Shehabul Hasan Mamun
Id :1402040