Piper Alpha Oil & Gas Platform Explosion: A Case Study in Risk Management

This paper examines the Piper Alpha Oil & Gas Platform Explosion of 1988, highlighting the critical role of risk management in preventing such catastrophic events. It delves into the key features of the safety case regime, analyzing how its implementation could have mitigated the disaster. The paper explores various risk management techniques, including hazard identification, consequence analysis, and response planning, and discusses their application in the context of the Piper Alpha incident. It emphasizes the importance of effective communication, collaboration, and a proactive approach to risk management in the oil and gas industry.

Piper Alpha Oil & Gas Platform Explosion

Q. prepare a short paper, to explain the key Risk management features of the safety case
regime in reducing the risk of major accidents and describe how its application may have
prevented the Piper Alpha Oil & Gas Platform Explosion in 1988.
In this project we will discuss the various types of risk management features and the different
ways to reduce the major accident and its benefits. In the case of Piper Alpha Oil & Gas Platform
Explosion in 1988 how can we use different scheme of risk management system for the getting
knowledge regarding the explosion and managing the overall project of oil and gas.
Piper Alpha was an oil and gas production platform situated at the North Sea under Scotland
(Angulo etal 2016). This plant is around 190 km (120 miles) in the direction of north east of
Aberdeen, in Scotland. And this oil and gas plant was operated by Occidental petroleum Limited
(Caledonia). Piper Alpha was opened in the year of 1976 for the production of oil only but after
few years they are converted to gas production plant. on 6th July 1988 an explosion was taken
place as a result the oil and gas fires complete destroyed the piper alpha production plant. In that
accident 167 of workers and peoples were died including 2 crewmen of the rescue vessel and 61
of the workers were survived and escaped. In that explosion 30 bodies were never recovered in
that accident. The total cost of the property damage during this explosion was around 1.7 billion
euro which is around $3.4 billion (Manuj et al., 2015). And that was the most costly manmade
catastrophes all around the world. During the time of distraction around 10 % of the North Sea
gas and oil were acquired by the platform all the gas and oils were lost as a result the disaster lost
in life of living and oil industry impact (Konschnik et al., 2018).
In 1972 four companies which is later transformed into OPCAL joint venture get the license of
oil exploration. And they got a piped oilfield location at 58degree 28 min north 15 degree east
direction in the year of 1973 (Udie et al., 2018). And then they constructed the platform and
pipeline in the sure sort structure. After a log construction of the platform and pipeline for three
years the production of oil starts in 1976 initially it is about 250,000 barrels of oil were produced
on the daily basis which is around 40,000 m3, and letter the production were increased to 300,000
barrels on the daily production which is around 48,000 m3. In 1980 the new gas production
module was installed as a result the production of oil is decreased to 125,000 barrels by the year
of 1988. In the Orkney Island to receive the oil from the piper, Claymore and Tartan oilfield each
with its own platform were building by the OPCAL in the name of Flotta oil terminal. This is

around 206 km from the piper alpha to Flotta. To connect this pipeline a 30 inch around 76 cm of
diameter of pipe is connected. The platform of the piper alpha was constructed by McDeromott
engineering at Ardersier and UIE at Cherbourg. For the safety reasons the platform is designed in
that way to keep the most dangerous operation area were distant from the personal area. Piper
alpha was situated on the piper oilfield which is around 193 km from the northern direction of
the Aberdeen, and its platform is around 475 feet from the sea water level. Because of the
conversion of oil to gas brakes the safety concerns as a result sensitive areas and personal are are
comes together. The gas consolation chamber is bringing near to the control room which is main
reason for the accident.
In the late 1970s to get good production of the gas and oil the government of U.K was carried out
the new export requirements after the work had been completed. Initially piper alpha was
initially made for the production of the oil but later it will also start producing oil to gas that’s
why it is a 2 mode operating. In the end of 1980 it is start converting oil to gas process. In the
year of 1980 the maintainer and major construction and the up gradation of the platforms leads
some distraction to the platforms (Khan et al., 2017).
12:00 noon the two condensate pumps named as A and B, for the transport of thee coast they are
being displaced the platform for the condensed. On the 6th July in the morning time pressure
safety valve of pump A was removed because of the routine maintenance. and till the 6 PM of
the evening the maintenance was not fully completed as a result the disc remain opened and the
duty engineer were filled in a permit that at any cost the pump A will not switched on because
the dices was hand tightened only (Swuste et al., 2017).
In 6:00 pm the day shift staffs work were finished and the night shifts starts and the piper alpha
were started by 62 of the mans. And new staffs of night shift started their work and the engineers
neglected to inform the condition and situation of the Pump A. they just go to the control center
and left. And the pervious permit of work was cont completed. And the new permit for the
general output overhead on pump A.
In 7:00 pm as many other offshore platform piper alpha was filled with automatic fire fighting
system using both diesel and electric pumps. The diesel pump were created to suck the large

amount of sea water for the fire fighting but on 6th July the automatic fire system is under the
manual condition.
On 9:45 pm the plant were already facing a the problem related to the methanol system early in
the day, the flammable ice had already started in the gas compaction system pipe work, causes
the blockage of the pipe. And due to this blockage the pump B stopped and cannot be started and
the overall power system of the platforms depends upon this pumps and if the pump will not start
on time the entire power system of the plant will fails (Chandler, 2017).
On 9:55 pump A were switch on as a result large amount of gas flow through the pump to the
chamber and the metal discs were not properly closed as a result a high pressure gas flows
through the pipes and because of leakage of gas it caches fire. And slowly it caches fire all
around the platform of the piper alpha.
Key elements of risk management safety regime
The oil and gas industry always have the importance of the assessing the risk of the operation
and implementation measures and manages the different types of the risks. The prime focus of
the on the reduction of the risks by the upcoming incidence which may leads to the oil spills. The
main purpose of the document is to provide the proper guidance and establish the different
recommendation for the effective procurer to the oil and gas management risk and proper
planning for the gas and oil industries facilities and operation. This is the fundamental part of the
establishment of the oil industry (Broadribb, 2015).
There are different types of risks which are associated with the oil and gas industry and they are:
1 establishing the oil and gas spill risks assessment
2 hazard identification
3 likelihood analysis
4 communication and consultation
5 establishing and evaluating the risk
6 consequences analysis

7 response planning
8 determinations of the oil spill response resources
9 tiered preparedness and response resources
10 format and update of the plans
The oil risk assessment includes the establishment evaluating and planning of the risks. It will
offers the overall part of the risk management and the elements which are connected to the risk
assessment process also knowing the communication consultant and the different parts of the
monitoring and review of the overall project. In hazard identification the complete circumstances
which may trigger the different hazardous events. And after getting the knowledge of the
different hazards which are related to the oil project the different methods of the removal of the
hazard will think. And the different tools which are helpful for the removal of hazards. It is also
very import to identification of the different likelihood substances and the main part is to
selection of the spill scenario in those likelihoods. For any project related to the oil and gas the
management always focus on the different consequences related to oil plant. And they are like
economical and social and ecological resources. There are few questions which may help in the
risk management of the oil and gas industry it is also important to know what can go wrong and
may release to the potential of the oil, what are key environment to the oil production team.
What are the identified scenarios. The different risk of the environmental damage. For the risk
management it is important to understand the project life cycle which includes the planning and
project execution part. And under the project planning the exploration drilling, feasibility,
concept selection, concept definition and optimization of the project part consists. In the project
execution the detailed engineering, construction, commissioning, and operation parts consists.
The support for the development concepts and the design options must be made. The
geographical regions must be best for the oil plant. To the identification of the different hazards
resources involved and including the personal thing must be required. Different methodology
must be applied for the betterment of the project. The identification the hazards and their cause
and characteristics must be use as a backup plan (Li et al., 2015). The identification of the social
and biological things must be important which includes the living things which are going to
affect with the project. And some important terms like the mature of the waves and the effect

over the fishers. The proper planning of the oil response is also very important and the planning
for the resources and different scenario related to the oil plant. And after analyzing the different
scenario it is also important to choose an appropriate scenario. The proper planning of the
monitoring the whole project is the key to manage the different risks and the taking the time for
overall project and updating the different condition is also the key to successful risk
management. After evaluating the different risks it is necessary to resolve those risks elements.
The evaluation of the risks it is important to presenting the risks and the overall risk tolerance
and what would be the best steps in the reduction of the risks and its measurement (Gateru,
2015).
Evaluation
In the Piper Alpha oil production platform if the proper planning is done with the help of proper
risk management tools the oil spill risk assessment the oils platform will not distorted. If the
proper planning for the hazards were managed then the problem related to the distraction of the
oil plant will not occurred. In the whole we can understand the main reason for the fire is the lack
of communication between the engineers and employs leads the pump A open and as result the
gas line catches the fire if the proper planning of dealing with fire is done with the proper risk
management then the this problem will resolve easily. And with the proper use of the equipment
and personal and logistic and incident management the determination of the oil spill resources
will always helps in the risk management. And the monitoring tem will properly work properly
an identify the problem in the starting phase than all the problems will definitely not occurs
(Piechczek et al. 2017). After getting the knowledge of the different hazards which are related to
the oil project the different methods of the removal of the hazard will think. And the different
tools which are helpful for the removal of hazards. It is also very import to identification of the
different likelihood substances and the main part is to selection of the spill scenario in those
likelihoods. For any project related to the oil and gas the management always focus on the
different consequences related to oil plant. And they are like economical and social and
ecological resources

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