FPSO blast should be cautionary tale

摘要

THIS month's fatal explosion of the Trinity Spirit floating production, storage and offloading vessel offshore Nigeria has shone a spotlight on the critical importance of maintaining the integrity of ageing oil and gas infrastructure and appropriate safety regimes. Oil and natural gas are highly combustible, which means the operators and owners of onshore and offshore hydrocarbon-handling facilities must take great care to ensure the potential for ignition from leaks is as small as possible. Once these energy-dense fossil fuels ignite, the results are almost inevitably disastrous in terms of lives lost, environmental pollution and financial hits.