Overview

At 10.00 p.m. on 6 July 1988 an explosion occurred in the gas compression module of the Piper Alpha oil production platform in the North Sea. A large pool fire took hold in the adjacent oil separation module, and a massive plume of black smoke enveloped the platform at and above the production deck, including the accommodation. The pool fire extended to the deck below, where after 20 min it burned through a gas riser from the pipeline connection between the Piper and Tartan platforms. The gas from the riser burned as a huge jet flame. Most of those on board were trapped in the accommodation. The lifeboats were inaccessible due to the smoke. Some 62 men escaped, mainly by climbing down knotted ropes or by jumping from a height, but 167 died, the majority in the quarters.

The Piper Alpha explosion and fire was the worst accident which has occurred on an offshore platform.

Following the disaster a Public Inquiry was set up under the Public Inquiries Regulations Offshore Installations Regulations 1974 presided over by Lord Cullen to establish the circumstances of the disaster and its cause and to make recommendations to avoid similar accidents in the future. The Inquiry s report The Public Inquiry into the Piper Alpha Disaster (the Piper Alpha Report, or Cullen Report) (Cullen, 1990) is the most comprehensive inquiry conducted in the United Kingdom into an offshore platform disaster, or indeed into any process industry disaster, on shore or offshore.