REMEMBERING PIPER ALPHA – 6 JULY 1988

6 July 2013 marks a quarter of a century of the Piper Alpha offshore oil platform disaster in the North Sea (approximately 110 miles (180 km) from Aberdeen Scotland).

 

On July 6, 1988, a series of catastrophic explosions and fires destroyed the platform. Of the 226 people on the platform at the time of the event, 165 died along with two emergency response personnel during a rescue attempt. The platform was totally destroyed.

 

Watch video: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=x0RQ491AwTk

Piper Alpha – report of the event: http://bit.ly/18Aiygv
Piper Alpha – the lessons: http://bit.ly/15jNsGM

Based upon eyewitness accounts it was concluded that a release of light hydrocarbon occurred when a pump was restarted after having been prepared for maintenance (Investigation was hindered by a lack of physical evidence). Unknown to the workers starting the pump, a relief valve in the pump discharge had been removed for maintenance. A blank had been loosely installed in place of the relief valve at a location which was not readily visible from the pump vicinity. When the pump was started this blank leaked, producing a flammable cloud, which subsequently found an ignition source. The pump was started at about 10 PM, and by 1 AM, three hours later, the platform had been entirely destroyed and most of its occupants had been killed.

 

As would be expected in a disaster of this magnitude, the investigation identified many root causes related to design, operation, safety culture, emergency response, and training.

Confirming my commitment to improve safety in all the process industries.

Sources/References:

CCPS Beacon  http://www.aiche.org/ccps/resources/process-safety-beacon/201307/english

Piper 25 Conference Oil & Gas UK  http://www.oilandgasuk.co.uk/events/Piper25/Presentations.cfm

NRMS - N Risk Management and Solutions

NRMS , a company providing independent and professional services in the field of risk managment. The prime focus is on the process safety and risk management related to Oil & Gas industry.

The range of expertise include:

• Hazard Identification


• Consequence modelling and analysis


• Risk evaluation (qualitative and quantitative)


• Identify and evaluate cost-effective engineering solutions to reduce or mitigate risk


• Emergency planning and preparedness


• HSE training and audits

update - back to my corner'

Again back to the corner.. it was an eventful year and a half in life.. hence no posts though plenty of interesting risk management related incidents happened in 2009 and 2010.
Plans are to post couple of thoughts on some events and developments happened during the period. A review on Jaipur incident investigation report will be posted shortly.

Canned Air - A Hazard?

Recently, Department of Labour and Industries Washington State, has issued a 'hazard alert' on 'canned-air' products. Most of us are aware of aerosols in cans and their associated hazards, but what is to do with canned-air? For that matter what is canned air?
'Canned air' is compressed gas used for dust-blowing purposes (used for cleaning keypads, small electronics etc). Normally, the substance (e.g. difluroethane) inside the can is a layer of liquid and gas above it .
An incident:
An employee who was cleaning a paper shredder with a canned-air product. The can was tilted too far so that the liquid contents spilled out and evaporated into a flammable cloud. The gas then ignited, burning the employee's face.

Note: The user must keep the can in an upright position during spraying to release the gas from the nozzle. Tilting the can allows liquified gas to escape leading to the formation of flammable atmosphere. A source of igntion (such as flame, spark) does the rest....

Basic safety measures
- Identify the potential areas and people using the canned air products
- Assess the risk (esp. for ventilation and confinement) for the area, consider alternate methods if necessary.
- Try to use a non-flammable gas based canned-air, if the use is necessary.
- Make sure, the user understands the hazards and sufficiently educated on safe handling and use of canned air
- Consider personal protection (if required)

Courtsey: Health and Safety Monitor, December 2008