The Piper Alpha disaster and how it changed fire and blast protection
Enter ProTek®
Since the tragic events of Summer 1988 when the Piper Alpha platform was destroyed as a result of explosion and hydrocarbon fires onboard, a Safety Case regime has been developed and implemented in response to the Cullen inquiry. These events also lead to industry wide activities to investigate and better understand the effects of accidental hydrocarbon fires on offshore structures. This knowledge has been applied to improve plant design and operation in a cost efficient manner as cited in Standards such as ISO 13702:1999.
Following the recommendations made as a result of the Piper Alpha disaster in1988, a major research programme was conducted by the SCS technology team in cooperation with the British Gas Research Station Spadeadam, HSE Buxton, Warrington Fire Research and SINTEF Norway. Over £250,000 was invested in fire and blast tests to develop the ProTek® restraint system, which has since been adopted in over 600 installations over the last 18 years by almost every major oil company for offshore and onshore facilities worldwide - particularly in the North Sea and the Arctic.
ProTek® is an incredibly strong and resilient composite material developed and used primarily for the manufacture of protective enclosures where fire and blast protection is required.
ProTek® and the competition
There are three main alternatives to ProTek® for fire and blast protection. ProTek® outperforms them all, is cleaner and easier to install, is lighter, requires no maintenance and in most cases has a longer lifespan - but most importantly its Lifecycle Cost is considerably cheaper than all other products.
Soft jackets that are wrapped around assets. They are cheap but only have a short lifespan so when compared directly to ProTek® .
Steel Enclosures enclosures are heavy, expensive and underperform when compared directly to ProTek®.
Coatings that are applied direct to the asset, they are messy and have to be replaced regularly, they are a pollution and environmental hazard and as a result take a lot of time and care installing and removing ensuring nothing is dropped.
ProTek® is the leading solution available for the oil and gas industries and when evaluating lifecycle costs, performance, lifespan, maintenance costs and its environmental impact there is nothing better available.
Go to the Lifecycle Cost page for more detail about why YOU should specify ProTek® for your platform or plant. More information is on the Technical page that details its performance and operating compliance, and visit the Why ProTek® page for information about maintenance and its environmental credentials. Go to the Certification page for details of wide ranging industry certification and compliance documents.
