Piper Alpha Disaster 6 th July 1988 By

Piper Alpha Disaster (6 th July 1988) By : Nurul Azzah binti Abd Aziz

Location • Located in the British sector of the North Sea oil field approximately 120 miles northeast of Aberdeen

Background of Piper Alpha • The major Northern Sea Oil and Gas for drilling and production • Operated by Occidental Petroleum Corporation with 226 workmen. • Production of oil and gas • A hub for importing and exporting oil and gas to and from other terminal

General Process Piper Alpha produces: • Crude oil • Liquify Petroleum Gas (LPG) known as condensate • Natural gas Module A – Wellhead Module B & C – Process oil and gas Module D – Power generation

Events of the Incident First initiating event • Maintenance work on one of the two condensate pumps (A & B). • Pump A was out for maintenance and pump B tripped. • Lead operator in the next shift was unaware of PTW for pump A. • Pump A was operated and condensate gas leaked causing first explosion in Module C. Second initiating event • Firewall Module B/C broke down and ruptures condensate pipeline causing second explosion. • Lasted only for a short moment Third Initiating Event • Crude oil in Module B leaks onto a rubber mat placed on grating causing fire below high pressure gas pipeline • Failure of high pressure gas pipeline causing the entire rig engulfed in fire.

What went wrong?

Scale of Accident • Flames over 100 m in height and can be seen from 100 km • Only Module A remains • 167 man died including 2 crewmen of a rescue vessel • Total insured loss : US$3. 4 billion