Three decades have passed since the world looked on in horror as the terrible events of Piper Alpha unfolded.
The 167 men who tragically lost their lives – fathers, sons, brothers, husbands, partners, friends and colleagues – will be remembered at a special service taking place on July 6 at 7pm at the Piper Alpha Memorial Garden in Aberdeen’s Hazlehead Park.
The commemoration – open to all, especially families and friends of those who died in Piper Alpha as well as anyone who wants to pay their respects – is an opportunity to come together and remember the loved ones who never came home.
Piper Alpha led to the rigorous Cullen Inquiry, which brought 106 recommendations for industry.
All the recommendations were adopted, and great strides have been made since the report was published in how we manage offshore process and personal safety, but the hazards still remain.
Lord Cullen will share reflections from Piper Alpha and from other past accidents when he addresses the two-day Safety 30 conference, organised by Oil & Gas UK together with the International Regulators’ Forum and opening tomorrow (June 5 and 6).
All too often, Lord Cullen will say, there were signs of danger which were not recognised – or acted upon – to prevent those accidents or limit their extent.
With Step Change in Safety as principal sponsor, we are bringing industry and regulators together to contemplate safety lessons from both past and present, take stock of where our safety performance is today, and look at how it could be managed in the future.
Organisations being represented include the Health and Safety Executive, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, the National Offshore Petroleum
Safety and Environmental Management Authority, the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers and Petroleum Safety Authority Norway.
Pioneering technology has played a critical role in the development and longevity of our sector, and there will be discussion around the kind of technical advances, like automation and digitalisation, that could help us improve our safety performance.
The absolute need to ensure lessons learned and skills and experience are transferred from one generation to the next and not lost is another major theme for debate over the next couple of days.
Many in our industry today weren’t even born when Piper Alpha happened. But we must never forget that when it comes to maintaining safe operations, we can never be
complacent.
The industry must keep learning and improving and never let go of that sense of chronic unease.
Events like Safety 30 – which help share key knowledge and experience – are vital for our sector.
I very much look forward to seeing you there.
Deirdre Michie, chief executive, Oil & Gas UK
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