People become complacent when they are encouraged to think wlpha safety can be ensured by rules enforced by inspectors: Operators kept a log but often failed to record maintenance activities. Article PDF cullen report piper alpha page preview. Eleven workers were killed in the Gulf of Mexico explosion inwith a resultant spill of millions of barrels of oil, largely considered to be reporr worst environmental disaster in US history.
Catch up on the latest news, views and jobs from The Chemical Engineer. A golden opportunity to put these right was missed. Cullen report piper alpha Alpha Perspectives 6th July This assumption, so easy to criticise with cullen report piper alpha, was based on several premises, the most important being that no event on Piper Alpha would render the helideck inoperative almost immediately and that sufficient helicopters would be available to evacuate everyone on board.
Now with a year archive of lessons learned from accidents, LPB is the leading source of process safety case studies. It was assumed that, whatever happened, evacuation would be at least substantially by helicopter. Which field contains the error? They could elect, by secret ballot every two years, someone to represent them in dealings with the installation management on health and safety and to establish safety committees on each platform.
What is the correct information? I was struck by the fact so many of those in attendance had to move on in life without a spouse or a parent. As tragic as the Piper Alpha event was in many terms, and as devastating to so many, through key findings of the investigations and subsequent regulatory improvements to how our industry delivers its objectives, it did provide many lasting positive changes and now sets the standard globally for others to emulate.
The disaster — about kilometres off the coast of Aberdeen — was the result of a catalogue of failures that began long before the first explosion at 10pm that fateful night. The crew moved quickly to resolve the issue before production was affected. What the night shift crew did not know was that the failure occurred just a few hours after a critical pressure safety valve had been removed from the other condensate pump system that was not in service.
It was temporarily replaced with a hand-tightened blind flange, and as the night crew turned on the alternate condensate pump system, the blind flange failed under high pressure, releasing volatile hydrocarbons at pressure within the process area of the platform.
The situation was further compounded by the fact other platforms in the area did not cease to export hydrocarbons into the systems that crossed Piper Alpha, even though distress signals were clearly communicated. The holes in each slice represent weaknesses in each individual part of the system, and they continually vary in size and position. This allows a hazard to pass through all of the defences, ultimately leading to an accident. Download all slides.
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This article is also available for rental through DeepDyve. View Metrics. Lord Cullen, author of the report on the Piper Alpha disaster, changed the face of offshore safety.
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