Piper Alpha 25 Years - Progress and Challenges Remaining for the Offshore Industry

摘要

The Piper Alpha disaster in July 1988 was a wake-up call to the upstream industry that simpler engineering and operational practices were no longer Suitable for the challenging environments then being encountered in the North Sea. The industry has adopted many changes since then affecting offshore organization, process safety management, technical design of topsides, subsea and drilling systems, and human factors and safety culture. A major conference in Aberdeen, Piper 25, reviewed many of the positive changes that have occurred since that accident. Benefits associated with safety cases in the UK and Australia are presented, along with improvements in safety management systems and safety culture programs. The many technical changes and improvements to fire and explosion knowledge and structural integrity are summarized. Progress on human factors has been less dramatic, but even here positive improvements are noted. Overall, there have been important improvements to process safety in the North Sea following Piper Alpha that would benefit all offshore regions,