Piper Alpha

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Stephen McGinty has written an epic account of the Piper Alpha disaster, Fire In The Night. 20 years on, Oil & Gas Middle East examines the impact the catastrophe had on the offshore industry.

What motivated you to write about Piper Alpha?

I was aware that the twentieth anniversary of the Piper Alpha disaster was approaching and I wanted to get some more information about it. When I started to do some initial research it was really the story of one man who made me think there was a terrific, powerful story here that people had forgotten.

People knew the name Piper Alpha, they knew there was an oil platform disaster and there was a huge loss of life, but what had been lost are the actual events that night, and remarkable heroism of those on board the Tharos fire fighting vessel, and the people onboard the fast rescue crafts who had woven in and out of the flames repeatedly over a 90 min period, desperately trying to save as many lives as possible.

What can readers expect from the book?

I wanted to cover the mechanics and what happened that night, but also try and humanise it and explain what these men went through, the sheer heroism of the rescuers, the desperate story of those critical hours. Conveying the scale is important 20 years on because for those crucial hours from 10pm until 4am it was the largest offshore rescue operation since the World War II.

A flotilla of naval vessels changed course and headed towards the platform. More than a dozen helicopters were dispatched and when dawn broke 30 ships were all around this scorched metal and what was left.

The Cullen Enquiry did a very good job at the time and every man who survived testified. I've gone through all the testimonies and pieced together the individual stories of the men who survived, including those involved in the rescue operation.

How did you add to the report's account?

I put a letter to all the survivors that I could trace, and those who contacted me were happy to talk. Some people felt "why go back over this?" Particularly those involved from the Occidental side who came in for much criticism at the time, but a number of them, particularly a mother of one of the men who died was pleased that someone was doing a book, and that someone was documenting it.

20 years on, how significant is Piper Alpha?

People talk of pre 9/11 and post 9/11, and in the same way there is pre Piper Alpha and post Piper alpha in the offshore oil industry. Cullen was very good in that he insisted on wide safety parameters, and insisted on how health and safety should be maintained offshore. Just one example is that accommodation is now separated from production, which is obviously a standard procedure these days but then it wasn't.

How is it possible the event wasn't foreseen?

The thing about the Piper Alpha incident was there had been documents prepared and risk assessments examined including what would happen if the gas lines snapped or broke and caught fire. What did happen was essentially a massive blowtorch fuelled by thousands of tonnes of high-pressure gas - the ultimate nightmare scenario.

Memos were written saying this could happen, but the calculations were that the chance of this happening would be 1 in 10,000 years. That memo was written three or four months before Piper Alpha went up.

Are the risks still present?

Even today I think it is impossible to do that job in that environment without risk. At the moment everyone is obsessed with the price of oil, and what this book does is remind people there is another price of oil.

Just because it is out far out to sea it's all to easy to forget the debt we owe every time we turn on the gas in our home or put petrol into our cars. We never give a thought to the guys out over the horizon, doing a job for us to ensure we have those things on tap. I hope the book can in some way remind people of that.

What impression has researching the book made on you?

I think it would have to be recognition of the heroism involved, the overwhelming desire of men in that situation to save other peoples lives. I was speaking to the captain of one of the small safety vessels weaving in and out of the flames, they were just off the platform and they were looking through this inferno and icy sea, and they saw this hand sticking out of the water.

He said to the crew: "We're his only chance, so everyone go go go," and with that they ploughed through the fire and water and managed to get this guy out, and that is something that will stick in my mind.

RELATED LINKS: Fire In The Night, Paradigm shift, All at sea

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