Nearly thirty years since Piper Alpha Disaster – HSE warn about hydrocarbon releases

Many of the big oil company disasters (such as Piper Alpha, or Texas City Refinery, or CAPECO) arise because of loss of containment of a highly flammable material (oil, gas, hydrocarbon, etc). If the release finds a source of ignition, then a fire/explosion will result and people killed or harmed, and property and companies are damaged. Hydrocarbon Releases (or HCRs) from oil rigs, oil processes plants, oil refineries, etc. are obvious examples of Loss of Containment of Highly Flammable Materials.

 Capeco – from CSB.gov

According to the HSE: ‘Failings across the board’ cause too many hydrocarbon releases (HCRs)

Chris Flint is the Director of the HSE’s Energy Division. He has asked operators to respond to him by 20 July stating what measures they either have or will introduce to improve their safety management systems on the areas of process safety leadership, as well as assurance, audit and review.  He said:

Every HCR is a safety threat, as it represents a failure in an operator’s management of its risks. I recognise the steps the industry has taken to reduce the overall number of HCRs, however HCRs remain a concern, particularly major HCRs because of their greater potential to lead to fires, explosions and multiple losses of life. There have been several such releases in recent years that have been perilously close to disaster.

If you get the safety culture right, staff will be much more likely to spot hazards, challenge when standards aren’t right, and be engaged in improvement. And if you have an effective system of monitoring and audit in place, leadership will know which systems need fixing, and can target their efforts to prevent the incidents occurring in the first place.

This is particularly poignant as we approach the 30 year anniversary of the Piper Alpha disaster in which 167 people lost their lives, and families were devastated.

HCRs are not things of the past. Following a recent and substantial release of flammable butane gas (HCR) from its plant, Total Lindsey Oil Refinery (LOR) has been fined £400,000. There was also a fine for an explosion resulting from maintenance work on a storage tank in Ellesmere Port.