This cliché term is often used to describe a complex and very important transfer of knowledge and experience. I now understand why safety is so important and can see the ways in which disasters on the scale of Piper Alpha can occur when complacency sets in and lessons are not learned or are forgotten about This is sometimes referred to as “passing the baton”. For this reason it is vital that the knowledge and experience currently in industry is transferred from the current workforce to the next. I now understand why safety is so important and can see the ways in which disasters on the scale of Piper Alpha can occur when complacency sets in and lessons are not learned or are forgotten about. I think of the lives lost in the tragedy and can relate that to my colleagues and friends offshore who have mentored me for the past two years. This helps me to picture the Scott platform in the context of the Piper Alpha disaster. Throughout my two years offshore my knowledge and understanding of the practical application of safety processes has improved as I have gained experience. I remember thinking that I never wanted to be in a position that required the use of any of these pieces of life-saving equipment. During the induction I was shown around Scott’s various modules as well as many different means of escape such as lifeboats and skyscapes. On my first day offshore I was given a platform induction. I was placed on the Scott platform and sponsored by Nexen Petroleum. This consisted of two years hands-on experience at an oil and gas facility. Two years later I finished the college phase of the OGTAP apprenticeship and moved on to the two-year on-the-job phase of training. Although this introduction to safety was undoubtedly important, the consequences of unsafe work did not completely resonate with me until I went offshore. These gave me a good understanding of potential hazards associated with tasks as well as teaching me methods of reducing risk. I carried out task-based risk assessments, and the first section of any technical report I composed was the health and safety considerations of the job. My first exposure to the safety culture of the industry was during these workshop sessions. Since starting OGTAP my perspective on the Piper Alpha disaster and attitude towards safety has changed dramatically.ĭuring the first two years of my apprenticeship I attended North East Scotland College, supplementing this theory learning with practical training in a workshop environment at Aberdeen Skills and Enterprise training (ASET). I started my career in the oil and gas industry four years ago as an apprentice through the Offshore Petroleum Industry Training Organisation’s (OPITO) Oil and Gas Technical Apprenticeship (OGTAP) Scheme. I was born in 1996, eight years after Piper Alpha, and I am part of the next generation mentioned previously. So if a new generation begins a career in industry without having lived through such an event, then how can the lessons learned be shared, and understood fully? However, the industry will soon be arriving at a place in time where a large proportion of the workforce was not even born when the disaster took place. The lessons learned from Piper Alpha should never be forgotten. In the years that followed Piper Alpha, the industry has used lessons learned from the disaster to implement a vast array of new regulations and improvements to safety. ON 6 July 1988 the oil and gas industry changed forever when explosions and subsequent fire on the Piper Alpha platform led to the loss of life of 167 people.