The Piper Alpha oil platform explosion killed 167 men and changed offshore safety forever. This is how a chain of ignored warnings turned the North Sea into a firestorm. And how another disaster, Deep Water Horizon, was foreshadowed by Piper.
On July 6th, 1988, the North Sea lit up like a second sun. The Piper Alpha disaster wasn’t just an accident—it was engineered by complacency, cost-cutting, and a system built to fail.
This An Ounce episode dives into the chain of decisions that made disaster inevitable: missing paperwork, disabled safety systems, and production pressure that drowned out caution.
From the first spark to the last survivor, this is the story of a night that reshaped offshore drilling worldwide.
If you’ve ever wondered how safety rules are written in blood, this is it.
👉 Watch more Disaster Files on An Ounce, where we uncover how small oversights become historic catastrophes.
📺 Related episode: “The Ghost Train That Destroyed a Town” — the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster that echoes the same lessons of system failure. https://youtu.be/8r4543HXmms
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#PiperAlpha #DisasterFiles #AnOuncePodcast #NorthSeaOil #deepwaterhorizon #SafetyLessons #IndustrialDisasters #FireInvestigation #EnergyHistory
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⏱️ 3. Chapters
00:00 — The Night the North Sea Burned
00:50 — The Chain of Failure
03:35 — Event Progression and Response
05:22 — Outcomes and Recovery
06:20 — Comparison, Context, and Lessons
07:59 — An Ounce
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🌐 4. References (Plain-Text URLs)
• Cullen Inquiry Final Report (1990): https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20090805144911/http://www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/meetings/iacs/osd/piperalpha.pdf
• UK HSE – Piper Alpha Inquiry Site (Open Government License v3.0): https://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/piperalpha.htm
• BBC Archive – Piper Alpha Disaster Overview: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-44749392
• Energy Institute – Lessons from Piper Alpha: https://publishing.energyinst.org/topics/major-accident-prevention/piper-alpha
• Survivor Steve Rae Interview (Energy Voice): https://www.energyvoice.com/oilandgas/north-sea/243942/steve-rae-piper-alpha-survivor
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🏷️ 5. Tags (Comma-Separated)
Piper Alpha, Piper Alpha Disaster, North Sea Explosion, North Sea Oil, Offshore Disaster, Oil Rig Explosion, Occidental Petroleum, Cullen Inquiry, Offshore Safety, Disaster Files, An Ounce Podcast, Jim Fugate, Industrial Safety, Fire Investigation, Deepwater Horizon Comparison, 1988 Explosion, Energy History, Safety Culture, Preventable Disasters, Piper Alpha Documentary, Piper Alpha Explained, Piper Alpha Investigation.
Credits:
Image and Video: By subscription through Getty and iStock, and:
Sources & Licenses
Images and reference materials from the Piper Alpha Disaster Inquiry (1988 – 1990) are reproduced with permission under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (OGL).
© Crown copyright, UK Health and Safety Executive.
Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 – https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
Some images have been cropped, color-graded, or composited for clarity. No endorsement by the HSE or the UK Government is implied.
For the full Inquiry and reports, visit:
https://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/piper-alpha-disaster-public-inquiry.htm
Music: Ebb by Density and Time via YouTube Audio Library

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