The Piper Alpha disaster was a turning point for the UK oil & gas industry, leading to significant changes in the industry’s approach to safety management, regulation and training.
Those changes began with the public inquiry chaired by Lord Cullen and remain in place today.
In total, Lord Cullen made 106 recommendations. These included transferring responsibility for offshore safety to the Health and Safety Executive, setting up a safety-case regime, replacing existing prescriptive legislation with goal-setting requirements, encouraging greater workforce involvement and making major changes to the design of offshore platforms.
Other recommendations included additional emergency shutdown valves on pipelines and the provision of a temporary refuge on every platform.
Undoubtedly, the industry is now in a fundamentally different place in the way in which risks are managed.
Nevertheless, even with the improvements made, there can be no complacency about our safety performance. Key to making further progress is personal responsibility for safety, as championed by the Step Change in Safety initiative, where individuals at all levels are encouraged to take ownership of their own safety as well as that of others.
Unparalleled elsewhere in industry, Step Change in Safety is a unique collaborative effort which has succeeded in uniting the UK oil&gas industry at all levels on the essential issue of safety in the workplace.
Today, the sector compares well with many other industries in terms of its reportable injury safety performance, being safer than construction, agriculture, manufacturing and the service industries. 2007 saw the lowest number of major injuries since 1995 despite a considerable increase in the offshore workforce.
Since 1997, when the Step Change in Safety initiative was launched, the industry’s safety record has shown a significant improvement, with a 55% reduction in the total injury rate. The number of dangerous occurrences also decreased to the lowest level in the last 10 years.
However, personal injuries are only a part of the picture; we operate in a major hazard industry where maintenance of safety-critical systems remains one of our key challenges, given the extended life that now lies in front of many installations.
The industry is currently investing well over £1billion a year to keep installations in a safe condition. A number of successful industry initiatives are raising awareness of asset integrity issues with senior managers and the workforce alike.
Step Change has raised the profile of process safety and asset integrity management through the launch of its unique integrity website, where best practice is shared, and the development of a new asset integrity workshop for managing directors and their teams.
This initiative is to ensure that all levels have a greater understanding of the management of processes for the prevention of a major accident.
Yet, in the end, safety is not just a company or industry matter, but is something for every individual working offshore or onshore. This is why the industry does not shy away from regularly speaking about the Piper Alpha disaster.
It is important that we remember what happened on July 6, 1988, and that we do not forget the lessons learned from this tragedy, making sure that the next generation of offshore workers does not have to learn the hard way.
Recently, Oil & Gas UK gave a series of presentations to young industry trainees to pass on the important lessons learned from the Piper Alpha disaster and ensure that the corporate memory is shared with the next generation of offshore workers.
It is important that the young professionals joining our industry understand the important role they each play, not only in ensuring their own safety, but that of colleagues working alongside them.
Brian Appleton, one of Lord Cullen’s technical advisers, summed it up well when he said: “The sum and quality of our individual contributions to the management of safety determines whether the colleagues we work with live or die.”
That remark remains as valid today as it was 20 years ago. We need to make sure that this message resonates with the new generation of workers, many of whom weren’t even born at the time of the Piper Alpha disaster.
Chris Allen is health, safety, social and environment director with Oil & Gas UK
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