Alexander L.Kielland

In the white paper on the Alexander L Kielland disaster, the government expressed an overall goal of simplifying and enhancing the efficiency of supervising oil and gas... 

Although the Piper Alpha disaster has a much higher profile, the Alexander L. Kielland event that occurred in 1980 was almost equally serious. However it did... 

Some of the elements of SEMS that were a factor in this incident are shown in Table 2.5. Those elements that are pertinent to the Alexander L. Kielland event are italicized. 

The Alexander L. Kielland was ten thousand tons of steel welded into a five-footed monster of an oil rig capable of virtually walking on water. As originally conceived, the ungainly vessel known as a semi-submersible would move from place to place in the ocean, stopping here and there to straddle geologically likely spots and drill for oil beneath the sea. In places where it might strike it rich, a permanent production platform could be erected, as if a monument to the peripatetic rig s success. 

Over the years, many accidents in the offshore industrial sector have occurred and resulted in many fatalities and a large sum of money being spent on damages. Some examples of the deadliest accidents in the offshore oil and gas industry are the Piper Alpha platform accident in the United Kingdom in 1998, the Mumbai High North Platform accident in India in 2005, and the Alexander L. Kielland accident in Norway in 1980 [3],... 

Alexander L. Kielland was a Norwegian semisubmersible rig/platform in the Ekofisk oil field, Norwegian continental shelf, about 235 miles east of Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom. The rig/platform was named after a Norwegian writer, and it was owned by the Stavanger Drilling Company of Norway. At the time of the occurrence of the disaster, the rig/platform was hired by the United States Company called Phillips Petroleum. 

Alexander, L., Kielland Accident, Report of a Norwegian Public Commission Appointed by Royal Decree of March 28,1980, Report No. ISBN B0000ED27N, Norwegian Ministry of Justice Police, Oslo, Norway, March 1981. 

There are major accident risks involved in the development and operation of offshore oil and gas fields. The Bravo blow-out in 1977, the capsizing of the Alexander L.Kielland in 1980 and the fire and explosion that destroyed Piper Alpha in 1988 remind us about this fact. A blow-out may result in extensive losses of human lives and damage to the environment. The Piper Alpha catastrophe demonstrates that fires and explosions may cause a high number of fatalities and extensive monetary losses. 

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