Offshore oil rig accidents are much more common than people realize. When working on an offshore oil rig, there are many types of offshore accidents that can occur, such as fires, explosions, collisions, lifting injuries, and slip-and-fall accidents. As a result, an offshore accident lawyer must be familiar with many aspects of personal injury law to handle these cases.
How Common Are Offshore Accidents?
Due to the dangerous nature of the work on an offshore oil rig, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) collects data on offshore accidents and injuries to investigate and determine the causes and trends of the incidents. According to the BSEE, from 2021 to 2023, there were 392 fires, five explosions, 17 collisions, and various other incidents on offshore oil rigs that led to 566 injuries and three fatalities. The accidents reported from 2021 to 2023 were not catastrophic; however, many offshore incidents in history have been truly devastating. Below, we will cover a few of the worst offshore accidents in history.
Piper Alpha
The Piper Alpha offshore oil rig explosion is considered by many to be the most catastrophic offshore accident to date. The Piper Alpha oil rig was located in the North Sea about 120 miles northeast of Aberdeen in Scotland. The accident occurred on July 6, 1988, after the day shift had replaced a safety valve with a temporary one. By the time the night shift crew arrived, the day shift had not completed the work and had left the temporary valve to return to in the morning. The worker completed documentation to tell night shift workers that the pump was unsafe to operate; however, it was not in the permit binder that workers checked. Without the permit, night shift workers were unaware that the pump was unsafe to use and began to operate it. Soon after they began operating the unsafe pump, gas began to leak out of the pump. The gas leakage triggered multiple explosions and caused the offshore rig to burst into flames. The fire took nearly three weeks to control. Of the 226 workers on Piper Alpha, 165 died, and only 61 survived. The total insured loss from Piper Alpha is estimated at around $1.4 billion, making it one of the costliest man-made accidents in history.
Alexander L. Kielland
The Alexander L. Kielland was a Norwegian semi-submersible platform that was located in the Ekofisk oil field in the North Sea. Although the Kielland was a drilling platform, at the time of the maritime accident, it was being used as a floating hotel (flotel) to house workers from a nearby rig. On March 27, 1980, a storm with strong wind gusts and tall waves took out a support leg and capsized the Alexander L. Kielland. The accident began around 6 P.M. when workers felt a loud crack and severe trembling on the platform. Five of the platform’s six anchor cables had snapped, causing the Kielland to tip over 30 degrees before stabilizing. However, about 18 minutes later, the last anchor cable snapped, and the Kielland capsized. Of the 212 people who were on board at the time of the accident, 123 lost their lives, and 89 survived. After the incident, investigators determined that a fatigue crack had developed over time in one of the Kielland’s bracings, which caused the rest of the rig to collapse.
Deepwater Horizon
The Deepwater Horizon was an offshore oil rig located in the Macondo Oil Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico. On the night of April 20, 2010, the rig exploded, burned, and sank. The incident began when a surge of natural gas blasted through a concrete core that was recently installed to seal the well for later use. Once past the core, the natural gas traveled up the rig’s riser to the platform, where it ignited. The explosion killed 11 workers and injured 17; however, the explosion’s impact was not finished. On April 22, the rig capsized and sank, rupturing the riser, where drilling mud had been injected to counteract the upward pressure of oil and natural gas. After sinking, the rig began to discharge oil into the gulf. The explosion is known as the biggest oil spill in U.S. history, with 4 million barrels of oil being spilled into the Gulf of Mexico for nearly three months. Although there was a lower loss of life in this incident than in the previous two accidents, the environmental impact was devastating. The oil spill harmed natural resources in the ocean and impacted many of the industries residents depended on, such as fishing and tourism.
Bohai 2
The Bohai 2 offshore oil rig was a jack-up rig located in Bohai Bay, China. On November 25, 1979, the Bohai 2 rig was performing routine drilling operations when it encountered a severe storm with winds between 55 and 63 miles per hour. The powerful winds caused waves to crash over the main deck, and the rig began losing stability and dangerously tilting. Eventually, the waves started flooding the rig, and soon after, the Bohai 2 capsized. The suddenness of the sinking made evacuation from the rig extremely difficult. As a result, many of the workers couldn’t escape in time, and emergency response teams could not reach the rig before it was too late. Of the 76 workers onboard the Bohai 2, 72 were killed, and only four survived. The incident is one of China’s most tragic days in offshore drilling history.
Ocean Ranger
The Ocean Ranger was a semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling rig that was operating in Canadian waters for the Offshore Drilling and Exploration Company (ODECO). On February 14, 1982, at 8 A.M., the rig was given a weather report indicating that a severe winter storm would pass over the rig around 4:40 P.M. that evening. The report noted winds of up to 90 knots and waves of 37 feet or more. To prepare for the storm, the crew retracted the rig’s drill pipe to handle the storm safely. However, around 9 P.M., a large wave broke the ballast control room’s porthole, soaking the console. Although the manager initially believed that the incident was not a problem, workers noticed that the mimic board lights were flashing different colors, indicating that the ballast controls were closing and opening on their own. With the ballast controls being important in maintaining the platform’s stability, the senior manager asked the standby vessel to move in closer. Around 1:30 A.M., the Ocean Ranger sent out mayday calls and informed radio operators that the crew was evacuating onto lifeboats. Nearby vessels dispatched lifeboats; however, the storm made rescuing survivors impossible. Around 3 A.M., the Ocean Ranger was still floating, but large waves overtook the rig, and it sank beneath the water. Of the 84 crew members on board, none were ever found.