Safety has vastly improved on North Sea oil and gas platforms since the deadly explosion on the Piper Alpha rig 25 years ago, but experts warn there is no room for complacency. The energy industry's deadliest ever accident, on July 6, 1988, claimed the lives of 167 men when a gas leak caused a fire and then the collapse of the rig off the coast of Aberdeen in Scotland.
A recent report from the industry body, Oil & Gas UK, found oil and gas leaks fell by 48 percent in three years between 2010 and 2013, just short of the 50 percent target. "While several major incidents have had to be addressed in the period covered by this report, non-fatal, over-three day, and combined fatal and major injury rates have all been in steady decline," said Robert Paterson, health and safety director at Oil & Gas UK. But Jake Molloy, offshore organiser of the RMT union, which represents about a quarter of the 28,500 staff working on North Sea platforms, warned safety remains an issue. "The fact that we had 47 major or significant gas leaks over the course of the last year, as well as a number of major injuries, demonstrates that there is always room for improvement," he said.