A brief recollection of oil rig accidents

Oil rig accidents

We do not hear very often about accidents that happen on oceanic drilling rigs. The reason for that is simple, minor accidents are not considered newsworthy by the media, but small accidents happen on a daily basis. In contrast with this, when a catastrophe strikes on an oil rig, the consequences are tremendous and becomes the most broadcasted topic for month or even years. When such events happen many parts are affected, the company operating the oil rig loses a tremendous amount of money; oil may spill in the ocean, affecting marine wildlife, fisheries and local tourism.
These are just a few consequences of an oil rig accident. The most horrible part counts for the lives lost in such accidents. The job itself on a drilling rig is notoriously demanding, requires hard physical work, non-stop concentration. As a matter of fact, CareerCast, a popular job finding site, in a recent countdown of the top 10 worst jobs in 2012, placed oil rig work at 4th place, based on stress factors, work environment and physical demand. It is clear that this type of job is not for everyone, and the working conditions are far from a "comfy" desk job. The stress factors, the long working hours, all add up to a high chance for accidents.
The types of accidents vary greatly and are influenced by many factors. One major contributing factor to accidents on drilling rigs are weather conditions. Oil rig workers face strong winds and hurricanes rather frequently. Combine that with old equipments, rust, oil and you will realize how dirty and serious this work is.

Photo by lindseygee

Memorable rig accident through history

The following list is a collection of some noteworthy oil rig accidents that happened in the past decades. The list is ordered by the number of fatalities

1. "Piper Alpha" oil production platform, 1988- 167 lives lost;
2. "Seacrest Drillship", 1989 - 123 lives lost;
3. "ODECO Ocean Ranger", 1982 - 84 lives lost;
4. "Glomar Java Sea Drillship", 1983 - 81 lives lost;
5. "Bohai 2 Jack-up", 1979 - 72 lives lost.  (Source: http://home.versatel.nl/the_sims/rig/i-fatal.htm)

The most common cause of these accidents was explosions and capsizing. The list presented is rather brief and there were other mentionable rig accidents, including those which had a tremendous   affect on the environment due to oil spills, but that is a subject for another topic. The purpose of my first post was to pay a tribute to those rig workers who lost their lives in these accidents and present the hazards and dangers these workers are facing.

Feel free to comment, add your thoughts to this story and share with us some of the rig accidents you heard off.