We are excited to announce that the IChemE London & South East Members Group and Safety & Loss Prevention Special Interest Group have joined in collaboration to host an engaging technical talk on the Piper Alpha disaster, presented by esteemed Professor Stephen Richardson (FREng, CBE) at Imperial.
Time: 18:30 – 20:00 (refreshments from 18:00)
Location: LT2
Date: 25 October 2016
Cost: Free of charge and open to all
Webpage: http://www.icheme.org/london-slp-piper-alpha-webpage
Registration: http://www.icheme.org/london-slp-piper-alpha-registration
Flyer: http://www.icheme.org/london-slp-piper-alpha-flyer
Talk Synopsis
On the 25th of October, we will be exploring the events leading up to the tragedy, and reflect on what can be learned and applied in today’s industry. Late in the evening of 6 July 1988, there was an explosion on the Piper Alpha oil platform in the North Sea. Within hours, 166 men died and over 10% of the UK’s oil production ceased. Financial losses of £2 billion (£4.8 billion, 2015) were sustained and a safety revolution spread across the industry.
In this engaging talk, esteemed Professor Stephen Richardson (FREng, CBE) will recount the events leading to this tragedy and draw some of the many lessons that can be learned from it.
Professor Stephen Richardson (FREng, CBE) Professor Stephen Richardson graduated from Imperial College London in 1972, and has since served as a Research Fellow, Lecturer, and Professor of Chemical Engineering in academia – before being appointed Head of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London in 2001. He was awarded the Moulton Medal of the Institution of Chemical Engineers in 1993 the Franklin Medal in 2003, for his work on computer program ‘BLOWDOWN’ and related matters – which has since been used in the design of well over 200 offshore and 40 onshore oil and gas platform installations.
Professor Stephen Richardson acted as an expert witness on the Piper Alpha and Ocean Odyssey inquiries, and as a result he has considerable experience of giving expert testimony. He has been a Fellow of Royal Academy Engineering since 2001, and was awarded a CBE for his contribution to Chemical Engineering Education in 2015.
He is the author of Fluid Mechanics (Hemisphere, 1989), co-editor of Computational Analysis Polymer Processing (Applied Science 1983) and has published over 100 research papers in the international literature.”