Piper Alpha: Fire in the night

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On TV now.

Wow. Just wow.

Amazing bravery and heartache.

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I don't mind admitting I've shed a few years tonight.

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Otispunkmeyer said:

Just reading that occidental top brass wouldn't let the sister rig claymore turn off its oil supply to piper alpha. Only doing so after the second explosion, because it would cost a lot of money for such a shut down. If I was the guy on that rig I wouldn't have listened I don't think.

The other rig, tartan, was supplying piper alpha with a 120 bar gas line!!!! When that burst it was funnelling 30 tons of gas into the fire per second!!! fking hell!

Glad my dad decide to work in the Middle East on das island. Though he did eventually go work for occidental on PS-1.

Hang on.

So the fire was in full swing and the gas was still being pumped "through" Piper Alpha?

s.

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jshell said:

Otispunkmeyer said:

The other rig, tartan, was supplying piper alpha with a 120 bar gas line!!!! When that burst it was funnelling 30 tons of gas into the fire per second!!! fking hell!

A gas line of a few miles long can't just be depressurised from 120 to 0 bar in a short time though, so I'm not sure it would have made that much difference. What was different was that in the wake of Piper, it was made mandatory to install seabed located shut-off valves to interfield gas pipelines.

(Just read the Wiki)
So basically it was a bad/flawed design (Ok for oil not for gas) coupled with human error and lack of procedures topped off with greed and arrogance from the owners, whoever "they" are I'd imagine it's not one person but a collective of spineless managers.

I imagine it's all very different now.

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petop said:

GTIR said:

(Just read the Wiki)
So basically it was a bad/flawed design (Ok for oil not for gas) coupled with human error and lack of procedures topped off with greed and arrogance from the owners, whoever "they" are I'd imagine it's not one person but a collective of spineless managers.

I imagine it's all very different now.

you would like to think so.......
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_oil...

Unbelievable.

Forgot about that debacle.

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Willy Nilly said:

How high was the helipad?

I was thinking about that bloke who was stood on the edge of it today and his only option was to jump off.

170ft iirc.

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The guy who burnt his head was saying he'd given up and didn't want to burn do just let go and then remembered his daughter and his promise to give her a wedding like her sisters so he decided to live!

The reconstruction they happily created at that point got a bit icky and cringey what with his "daughter", wearing a wedding dress, floating under the sea with him and them both kicking to reach the surface!