A Disturbing Documentary on the Piper Alpha Oil Platform Explosion.
Most people who are killed by petroleum are killed by its combustion products, aka air pollution.
As I never tire of telling people - not that they actually care - air pollution deaths are occurring right now at a rate of 7 million people per year, almost all of them related to oil, coal, gas (and yes - dangerous natural gas contributes to air pollution) and "renewable" biomass combustion.
However, oil and gas accidents, generally fires and explosions also kill people.
Everyone on the planet, more or less, is immediately aware of, say, Chernobyl, in 1986, but almost no one can talk about the Piper Alpha explosion in 1988, two years later.
Like, say, the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico a few years back, it's gone down the memory hole, because Americans all "need" gasoline for the important things, like say, keeping the grass covering suburban lawns and golf courses, clean and trim.
The Smithsonian Channel has a new series, called "Make It Out Alive."
It's been running in this series a documentary on what happened when the Piper Alpha offshore oil rig exploded owing to the operation of a dangerous natural gas line leading to a compressor. The explosion killed 167 people within a few hours.
The trailer for the documentary is here: Make it out alive
If you have a chance, watch it during one of the reruns of the episode. But don't be too concerned, because, um, we "need" oil and gas, apparently even more than we need water and air.
Don't worry, be happy. Nobody will stop building oil and gas platforms in your life time - your lawn mower is safe.
Here for instance, is information from the Danish Energy Agency, as of 2017, about how to license a new one now:
Danish "Responsible" Oil and Gas Leases
Enjoy the coming work week.
