Piper Alpha Disaster (6th 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