Thirty-three years ago a disaster occurred 120 miles North East of Aberdeen. An Occidental oil & gas facility, Piper Alpha, was destroyed by explosion, fire and, ultimately, human negligence. In the hours after 10 pm on 6th July, 167 men died.
I wasn’t there.
I knew men who were…some of whom survived. I had, for a time, ‘moved South’ after the oil price slump of 1986. I returned to Aberdeen in the aftermath of Piper Alpha and was involved, for a time, in the oil & gas industry’s response to the events of that night – ‘improved’ permit to work systems, drop down firewalls, emergency shutdown valves, safety cases and ‘STEP change’. Earnest endeavours to keep the fossil fuel industry intact in the face of an atrocious negligence arising out of arrogance and greed.
The Tory government, led by Margaret Thatcher, expressed sympathy whilst taking measures to limit trades union reaction and suppress calls for improved safety standards offshore. Cabinet papers released in recent years reveal that these measures were encouraged by oil company representatives embedded in UK government and that Margaret Thatcher clearly had a great deal more sympathy and empathy with Armand Hammer, then president of Occidental, than with the families of those killed or injured as a consequence of Occidental’s negligence.
Over the last two years I have been working on a project – Pibroch – reflecting upon the events of that night – and their aftermath – as they parallel our current global situation in this time of Climate Emergency. The parallels, for me, are stark and compelling.
“The Tory government, led by Boris Johnson, expresses sympathy whilst taking measures to limit societal reaction and suppress calls for improved environmental standards. Cabinet papers will be released in future decades (if we’re lucky) revealing that these measures were encouraged by oil company representatives and their investors embedded in UK government and that Johnson clearly had a great deal more sympathy and empathy with fossil fuel interests than with the families of those killed or injured as a consequence of his negligence.”
Somewhere about 1998 I was offshore on one of BP’s Forties installations. About 6.30 a.m., long before it was light, the platform shutdown and the flare lifted. I, and others in the crew, waited in the dark of a portacabin on deck, awaiting instructions to go to muster, receiving no further instruction or update on the ‘situation’. Waiting. Hoping. And yes…complying, obeying.
Most of the men who died that night 33 years ago lost their lives following instructions and procedures, hoping rescue would come. Some of them, I suspect, knew the installation was unsafe. That was certainly what I was told by some of their colleagues in the years after. But you’re on this platform together. There is solidarity and a certain (misplaced) trust.
Most of those who survived chose to abandon ‘business as usual’ and take responsibility for their own lives. The parallels with the current Climate Emergency seem to me compelling.
Please reflect on that as we drift into an ever more hazardous climate.