Overview

Any account of loss prevention needs to include some mention of offshore oil and gas activities, even if this is necessarily brief. There is a continuous interaction between developments onshore and offshore. The treatment given here is confined to an outline of offshore safety activities.

Offshore installations operate in a difficult and often hostile environment. The problems, not only of structures but also of processing, are challenging. The solution of these problems often involves technological innovation. The significance of this for safety and loss prevention is clear.

The report into the Piper Alpha disaster (Cullen, 1990), known as the Cullen Report, provides a wealth of detail both on the design and operation of an actual platform, albeit one of the older ones, in the North Sea and on the impact on it of a major accident event.

Accounts of offshore oil and gas are given in Offshore Oil Technology by Ranney (1979), Onshore Impacts of Offshore Oil by Cairns and Rogers (1981), Introduction to Petroleum Development by Skinner (1982), Technological Guidelines for Offshore Oil and Gas Development by Gilbert (1983), Gas Production Operations by Begg (1984), Behaviour of Offshore Structures by Battjes (1985) and Safety in the Offshore Petroleum Industry by Barrett, Howells and Hindley (1987) and by R.J.S. Harris (1978), Holmes and Mead (1978), Timar (1978), Shyvers (1981) and Waldie (1986).

The series of booklets by BP Petroleum Development Ltd (1990a g) constitutes a useful starting point.

Much useful information...