Operator and supervisor errors escalated a process safety incident into a disaster. Could people better trained in oil and gas safety procedures have prevented it, or stopped the process safety incident once the fire stated? On the night of July 6, 1988, five operators were in the control room on Piper Alpha. That was the […]
Piper Alpha: A Maintenance Process Hazard Analysis Among the physical causes of the initial process safety incident, maintenance should be at the top of the list. That basic safety management failure struck the first match. How tightly does a flange have to be bolted to prevent vapor leaks on a condensate line pressurized to 650 […]
AREA OF ANALYSIS Safety Instrumented Systems depend on Instrumentation Pressure sensors to warn of an impending reactor rupture, temperature sensors to trigger an alarm that a reaction is out of control. In some process units, there are more safety-related sensors than those for process control. Instrumentation certified for use in safety applications is thoroughly studied […]
Download eGuide: Operational aspects of process safety systems are under increased scrutiny throughout the automation industry these days. Beyond the pure financial benefits, which focus on reducing operational cost throughout the system lifecycle, the real driver is safer operations. Systems continue to get more complex, and with a larger number of systems in any given […]
Older safety systems were a series of individual safety loops: a sensor connected to a logic solver, which activated a final control element. If a level sensor in a tank detected that the liquid was too deep, it sent a signal to its logic solver to close the inlet valve. There could be dozens or […]
During the platform fire in 1988, virtually nothing went right, which allows us to draw lessons from a long list of events leading to the hazard. In the aftermath of the huge fire on the Piper Alpha platform, July 6, 1988, it was clear that the fire started and escalated very quickly into a full-blown […]
