What was the worst oil rig accident?
What was the worst oil rig accident?
Piper Alpha, UK North Sea, 1988. In 1988, explosions on the Piper Alpha oil platform in the British North Sea killed 167 people. This became the deadliest offshore oil rig accident in history.
What was the main contributor in the 1988 Piper Alpha incident?
Water alone would not have put the oil fires out (and with gas fires one should not even attempt to do so) but it might have cooled the structure and pipelines and have prevented — or at least significantly delayed — the gas line rupture which was the major escalating factor in the Piper Alpha disaster.
What was the name of the oil rig that blew up?
On April 20, 2010, the oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, operating in the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded and sank resulting in the death of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon and the largest spill of oil in the history of marine oil drilling operations.
How many bodies were recovered from the Ocean Ranger?
22 men
It became Canada’s worst tragedy at sea since the Second World War. The bodies of 22 men were eventually recovered, some floating in life jackets in the icy North Atlantic waters and others in smashed lifeboats.
How many people have died on the North Sea oil rig?
167 people
The North Sea disaster on Piper Alpha remains the worst oil rig disaster ever. The tragic event claimed the lives of 167 people on 6 July 1988. A communication error between shift changes resulted in a gas leakage which triggered multiple explosions on the platform. Of the 226 workers, only 61 survived.
Who was the owner of Piper Alpha?
Occidental Petroleum
Owned by Occidental Petroleum, Piper Alpha began production in 1976 at the Piper oil field, which is owned by the OPCAL joint venture (JV). It was initially constructed as an oil production platform and later added with a gas recovery module to facilitate gas production. Piper oil field produced oil from 36 wells.
What went wrong in Piper Alpha?
Piper Alpha was an oil production platform in the North Sea operated by Occidental Petroleum (Caledonia) Limited. An explosion and resulting oil and gas fires destroyed the platform, killing 167 people, including two crewmen of a rescue vessel.
What is currently the largest oil spill in recorded history?
BP’s Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (2010) The largest accidental oil spill in history began in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, after a surge of natural gas blasted through a cement well cap that had recently been installed to seal a well drilled by the Deepwater Horizon oil platform.
Why did the Ocean Ranger oil rig sink?
Three inquiries, the joint Federal-Provincial Royal Commission on the Ocean Ranger Marine Disaster and 2 US studies, found that the rig sank after seawater entered its ballast control room through a broken porthole and caused an electrical malfunction in the ballast panel controlling the rig’s stability.
How did the oil rig collapse in the North Sea?
At least 120 oil rig workers are feared dead after a North Sea accommodation platform collapsed during gales. Reports say a massive wave hit one of the legs of the platform, causing it to break and send the 208 people on board into the sea at around 1830 GMT.
What happened to the Kielland oil rig?
Alexander L. Kielland (platform) Alexander L. Kielland was a Norwegian semi-submersible drilling rig that capsized while working in the Ekofisk oil field in March 1980, killing 123 people. It was a platform of the Pentagone series. The capsize was the worst disaster in Norwegian waters since World War II.
What was the worst disaster in Norwegian offshore history?
Of the 212 people aboard 123 were killed, making it the worst disaster in Norwegian offshore history since World War II. Most of the workers were from Rogaland. The Silver Pit was also the standby vessel for the Piper Alpha disaster on 6 July 1988.
How did North Sea offshore installations respond to the Kielland disaster?
In response to the Alexander L. Kielland disaster, North Sea offshore installations tightened their command organization, identifying a clear authority who would order abandonment in case of emergency.
