Piper Alpha

Maersk Cutter, which started dousing the drilling floor of Piper with her fire monitors as early as ten minutes after the blast; Lowland Cavalier, which had no monitors but immediately deployed a workboat; and converted supply ship Sandhaven, which was the standby vessel for Santa Fe 135, a semi-submersible drilling rig several miles away, and had her fast rescue craft in the water minutes after she spotted the first fire on Piper Alpha. Other vessels that attended the operation later were Loch Shuna, Maersk Logger and Maersk Leader. Overall, 11 fast rescue craft (FRC) from nearby vessels were involved in the rescue operations.

Tharos launched her Sikorsky S-76 helicopter at 22:11 but it was unable to land on Piper due to smoke. At 22:23 Tharos received a message from Piper: "People majority in galley area. Tharos come. Gangway. Hoses. Getting bad." She drew alongside Piper Alpha around 22:30 and used her water cannon to cool the platform, which was useful in assisting survivors escape from the pipe deck and helideck. Attempts to deploy her extendable gangway over to Piper were unsuccessful. One survivor who jumped when the Tartan riser failed swam to Tharos and climbed out unaided. When the MCP-01 riser failed, Tharos withdrew to away. The MSV was equipped with a hospital with an offshore medic assisted by diver paramedics from a saturation diving team. A triage and reception area were set up on the vessel's helideck to receive injured casualties.

Silver Pit<nowiki/>'s FRC was launched within two minutes of the first explosion and rescued the first nine people from the northwest corner within 13 minutes. She rescued a total of 29 people, with Silver Pit herself rescuing a further eight. When the Tartan riser failed Silver Pit withdrew to away. When the MCP-01 riser failed, rope on the deck began to smoulder and the vessel withdrew further away.

Lowland Cavalier deployed a workboat that picked up two people who had fallen from a rope at the northwest corner. When the first gas riser failed, the workboat crew sheltered in the water.

Sandhaven<nowiki/>'s FRC picked up four men who had climbed down ropes. She returned and picked up two more when the MCP-01 riser failed. At that moment, the craft's propeller got entangled in debris. The boat was engulfed in the fire, throwing the survivors and the three crew into the water. All perished with the exception of coxswain Iain Letham. The search-and-rescue helicopters made unsuccessful sweeps for survivors in the water and ferried injured survivors from rescue vessels to Tharos and to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

A civilian Sikorsky S-61 of Bristow Helicopters carrying a medical emergency team arrived at the scene by 1:20 on 7 July. Of the 135 deceased whose bodies were recovered, the vast majority died from inhalation of smoke and gas, with only four indicating death from burning, and several others from injury sustained from jumping into the sea. Five were the survivors that jumped off the helideck from a height of into the North Sea. The largest number of survivors (37 out of 61) were recovered by MV Silver Pit or her fast rescue boat, whose coxswain James Clark later received the George Medal, as did Iain Letham of the Sandhaven. Others awarded the George Medal were Charles Haffey from Methil, Andrew Kiloh from Aberdeen, and James McNeill from Oban. Sandhaven crewmates Malcolm Storey, from Alness, and Brian Batchelor, from Scunthorpe, were awarded George Medals posthumously.

Aftermath

thumb|right|The burnt remains of module AControversy exists about whether time was sufficient for a more effective emergency evacuation. Systems critical for emergency management such as the public announcement/general alarm, emergency power, safe haven, and—crucially—the lifeboats, were destroyed or impaired due to poor platform design. Executing the actions described in the emergency response plan became effectively impossible. Additionally, the OIM was perhaps not capable of thinking outside the established procedures and of ordering an improvised evacuation.

It was estimated that the fires had produced flames with a height of about 200 metres and a peak rate of about 100 gigawatts, or three times the total power consumption of the United Kingdom.

The responsibility to implement was for 57 with the regulator, 40 for the operators, 8 for the industry as a whole and 1 for stand-by ship owners.

The recommendations led to the enactment of the Offshore Safety Act 1992 and the making of the Offshore Installations (Safety Case) Regulations 1992.

Most significant of these recommendations was that operators were required to present a safety case and that the responsibility for enforcing safety in exploitation operations in the part of the North Sea apportioned to the UK should be moved from the Department of Energy to the Health and Safety Executive, as having both production and safety overseen by the same agency was a conflict of interest.

Civil suit

Occidental and their insurers, Lloyd's of London, paid survivors and families of the dead a total of $220 million in settlements. Later, Lloyd's and Elf Enterprise Caledonia Ltd, successors to Occidental Petroleum, brought civil proceedings against a number of contractor companies who were working on Piper at the time of the accident. Based on the argument that the responsibility for the accident should be shared among the platform operator and the contractors working onboard immediately prior to the accident, Elf was seeking to recover from the defendants a part of the monies paid to the injured and the affected families. Among the companies involved were British Telecommunications, Wood Group, and Stena Offshore.

Giving verdict in what was then the longest civil trial in Scottish history, in 1997 Lord Caplan ruled that two workers who were killed in the explosion, Robert Vernon (who had posthumously received the Queen's Commendation for Bravery) Lord Caplan found that Sutton had failed to tighten the bolts of the blind flange at the suction side of the removed PSV, and that Vernon had put the pump back in operation without checking its status first. Vernon was employed by Occidental and Sutton by contractor Score (UK) Ltd. The finding against Vernon and Sutton was controversial among the families of the victims.

One of the 1997 rulings by Lord Caplan was that, albeit in principle contractors were obliged to indemnify Elf, Elf's insurers could not claim back monies from the defendant contractors, because Elf had already largely been indemnified by Lloyd's. Elf and Lloyd's appealed this finding in Scotland to the Inner House of the Court of Session, which decided in their favour in December 1999. Subsequently, the contractors appealed the decision to the House of Lords in London in November 2001, but their appeal was rejected. As a result, Elf and their insurers were able to recoup £136 million with accrued interest. A lasting effect of the Piper Alpha disaster was the establishment of the Offshore Industry Liaison Committee, the trade union for oil and gas rig workers. The union, while still in the form of an unofficial committee drawn from different North Sea rigs, organized large strikes in the summers of 1989 and 1990.

Piper Bravo was installed in 1992 to replace Alpha and commenced production in February 1993. A wreck buoy marking Alpha's remains was installed and lies approximately from Bravo.

Beginning in 1998, one month after the 10th anniversary, professor David Alexander, director of the Aberdeen Centre for Trauma Research at Robert Gordon University carried out a study into the long-term psychological and social effects of Piper Alpha. He managed to find 36 survivors who agreed to give interviews or complete questionnaires. Almost all of this group reported psychological problems. More than 70% of those interviewed reported psychological and behavioural symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Twenty-eight (or 78%) said they had difficulty in finding employment following the disaster; some offshore employers apparently regarded Piper Alpha survivors as "Jonahs" – bringers of bad luck, who would not be welcome on other rigs and platforms. The family members of the dead and surviving victims also reported various psychological and social problems. Alexander also stated, "some of these lads are stronger than before Piper. They've learned things about themselves, changed their values, some relationships became stronger. People realised they have strengths they didn't know they had. There was a lot of heroism took place."

In process safety

The Piper Alpha disaster and the Cullen Report are milestones in the development of process safety. Its effects on the offshore oil and gas industry can be compared with those the Flixborough disaster had on the onshore chemical and petroleum process industry in the 1970s. The Cullen Report put a strong emphasis on the importance of a robust safety management system (SMS). The requirement for a safety management system to be in place was introduced in British legislation in the wake of Piper Alpha. Elements of process safety management that failed on Piper Alpha included:

Permit-to-work, and in particular the mechanism of permit handover. The whole accident chain of events commenced due to the attempt to start-up a pump which was actually under maintenance. As a result of the tragedy, the Safety Case Regulations came into force in 1992. By late 1993, a safety case had to be submitted to the Health and Safety Executive for every platform and rig in British waters (including the exclusive economic zone). The safety case must describe and justify the design, inherent hazards and residual risk in the spirit of the ALARP (as low as reasonably practicable) principle, as well as the means of managing such residual risk. The safety case must be maintained up to date through the lifecycle of the installation.

The safety case regime has been ascribed a measure of success in promoting safer facility design and management of offshore operations in the United Kingdom. Trade association Oil and Gas UK linked a significant fall in lost time injury frequency rate observed since 1997 to the introduction of the regime. A study commissioned by the Health and Safety executive found that the regime heightened awareness of risks throughout the industry and set in motion a more structured decision-making process targeting risk reduction efforts, safety management system improvements, and a better safety culture. According to another source, Piper was the catalyst for a development from an unsystematic, albeit well-meaning, collection of standards and processes to a systematized approach specific to safety.

However, some criticism of the safety case approach has also been voiced, pointing to implementation and communication problems as well as issues with the supporting safety studies.

The safety case regime has been adopted outside the United Kingdom, both as a regulatory instrument (for example in Australia, Malaysia, and Norway,

In terms of facility design, some of the Cullen Report<nowiki/>'s recommendations have become tenets for the safe design of offshore oil and gas installations: Quantified risk assessment (QRA) also became more common, particularly in support to ALARP arguments. One effect of these studies was that a rectangular (rather than square) layout became common for new North Sea platforms, to allow for increased spacing between vulnerable areas and major hazard modules. For the same reason, bridge-linked platforms became more common to increase separation from the accommodation module. The resulting changes in the design philosophy of offshore facilities have therefore been towards an inherently safer design (ISD) concept.

Memorials

thumb|Memorial to the disaster in [[Hazlehead Park, Aberdeen]]

thumb|The Piper Alpha Window, [[Ferryhill, Aberdeen|Ferryhill Parish Church, Aberdeen. The discs represent workers who died in the incident. At the window's base, the discs are orange/red in colour, signifying the fire. Their colour lightens in the upper part of the window, signifying their ascent to heaven]]

A condolence banner was gifted in 1989 by the Victorian Trades Hall Council of Australia, and is now in the Aberdeen Maritime Museum.

On 6 July 1991, the third anniversary of the disaster, a memorial sculpture was unveiled by the Queen Mother in the Rose Garden within Hazlehead Park in Aberdeen. It was created by Sue Jane Taylor, a Scottish sculptor who based much of her work around what she saw in and around the oil industry and had actually visited Piper Alpha in 1987.

A memorial stone was erected in 1992 in Strathclyde Country Park to commemorate the men lost from that region.

The Oil Chapel in the Kirk of St Nicholas, Aberdeen was dedicated in 1990 to mark 25 years of North Sea oil. The chapel hosts a book of remembrance to all those who have died offshore in British waters.

In the media

The incident was featured in the 1990 STV documentary television series Rescue, about the RAF Search and Rescue Force at RAF Lossiemouth, in the episode "Piper Alpha". Coincidentally, the film crew had been documenting the rescue teams at Lossiemouth at the time of accident and were able to accompany the helicopter during the Piper Alpha disaster, filming events as they happened from helicopter Rescue 138.

In 1998, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary, Prospero Productions of Australia released the documentary Paying for the Piper. It was written and produced by Ed Punchard, who was one of the divers that managed to escape the inferno. The film follows Punchard's return to Scotland to confront his past and culminates in a meeting with Occidental officers.

In 2004, National Geographic featured this incident in its Seconds from Disaster documentary as the episode "Explosion in the North Sea".

On 6 July 2008, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a 90-minute play by Stephen Phelps entitled Piper Alpha. Based on the actual evidence given to the Cullen Inquiry, the events of that night were retold 20 years to the minute after they happened.

Also in 2008, to mark the 20th anniversary of the disaster, a stage play, Lest We Forget was commissioned by Aberdeen Performing Arts and written by playwright Mike Gibb. It was performed in Aberdeen in the week leading up to the anniversary with the final performance on 6 July 2008, the 20th anniversary.

In 2011, Lee Hutcheon produced and directed The Men of Piper Alpha, a documentary with several interviews to the survivors.

In 2013, on the 25th anniversary of the disaster, the video Remembering Piper: The Night That Changed Our World was released by British offshore oil and gas industry initiative Step Change in Safety. It incorporates passages from the BBC radio play and artwork by Sue Jane Taylor.

The documentary film Fire in the Night was also released in 2013. It was made by Berriff McGinty Films and co-produced by STV. Producer and cameraman Paul Berriff had been with Sea King Rescue 138 during the filming of the Rescue series.

In 2017, the episode "Oil Rig Explosion" of the Smithsonian Channel documentary series Make It Out Alive! focused on the disaster, with interviews to, among others, Geoff Bollands, Iain Letham, Charles Haffey, and Paul Berriff.

In 2018, a special edition of the Monopoly board game was released to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the tragedy. It was sponsored by a number of companies working in the North Sea offshore oil and gas industry, including majors such as Shell, whose Brent platforms substituted for the four train station squares. The game release was part of a fundraiser for the maintenance costs of the memorial in Hazlehead Park. The box lid prominently featured Piper Alpha imagery and a "Piper Alpha 30th Anniversary" title, which led the game to be referred to as the "Piper Alpha Monopoly". The reactions of some of the survivors and victims' families were negative, calling the game "callous" and a "sick joke". The game was re-released with a different design to clarify that it was really an oil-and-gas (and not a Piper Alpha-themed) Monopoly edition.

Also in 2018, the disaster was featured on the History documentary series James Nesbitt's Disasters That Changed Britain. Testimonials were heard from survivors and relatives of victims.

In 2023, to mark the 35th anniversary, writer Mike Gibb adapted his stage play as a novel titled I Had Never Heard a City Cry Before, a quote from the script.

In 2025, Disaster at Sea: The Piper Alpha Story, a three-part documentary, was broadcast on BBC Two.

Explanatory notes

References

Bibliography

Volume 1 (archived from the original on 2 May 2007, retrieved 18 December 2005).
Volume 2 (archived from the original on 8 February 2007, retrieved 18 December 2005).
Volume 3 (archived from the original on 25 August 2007, retrieved 18 December 2005).
Volume 4 (archived from the original on 25 August 2007, retrieved 18 December 2005).
Volume 5 (archived from the original on 25 August 2007, retrieved 18 December 2005).
Volume 6 (archived from the original on 3 December 2006, retrieved 18 December 2005).
Volume 1 (archived from the original on 6 November 2023, retrieved 20 December 2023).
Volume 2 (archived from the original on 16 December 2023, retrieved 20 December 2023).

External links

Links (archived) to all the opinions of the Lords of the Court of Session at first instance and in reclaiming motions of the civil proceedings
"On This Day" (archived) – BBC News article (6 July 1988)
"Piper Alpha Case History" (archived) by the Center for Chemical Process Safety of AIChE
"Piper 25 Conference – Steve Rae" – presentation by a survivor, video on YouTube
"Piper Alpha 25th Anniversary Rededication and Act of Remembrance" from Offshore Energies UK's channel on Vimeo
"Piper Alpha Disaster" (archived) on Education Scotland's website