Potential North Sea Oil Disaster

This is the Ninian Central Platform.
www.flickr.com...
Here is the wikipedia description.
en.wikipedia.org...
This gives an idea of its importance and the amount of oil that could potentially be released in a disaster scenario.
www.bpnsi.com...
This gives information about the construction. Watch a few seconds of the video from 5 minutes 35 seconds. At some point in the construction long, vertical cracks appeared on the inside. The management ordered a cover-up. The cracks were disguised and the rig was completed.
ssa.nls.uk...
If you google 'decommissioning concrete oil platforms' you'll find the HSE report outlining the issues that have to be faced. The cracks that were covered up and others formed since have almost certainly led to corrosion of the reinforcing bars and more critically the tensioning cables.

I've been warned I'll get a bullet in the head for revealing the existence of these cracks.

I'm asking my ATS buddies to stand by me. If I go down I want you all to make as much noise about this as possible.

a bullet in the head for revealing it? if you google the platform youll see other people that have posted about the cracks.

over exaggeration wont bring in the stars

reply to post by Bonkrh


And who exactly are these other people?

how much is it?

I need a new holiday home, somthing thats a bit of a project

reply to post by Biigs


My decommissioning solution is to remove most of the steel superstructure, cut the remaining units horizontally and fill them with soil and plants. Hey presto! A magic island! I'm sure we can work out a favourable price.

reply to post by Bonkrh


Check out grunters comments and you'll see a little greeting.

Originally posted by Kester
reply to post by Biigs

 

My decommissioning solution is to remove most of the steel superstructure, cut the remaining units horizontally and fill them with soil and plants. Hey presto! A magic island! I'm sure we can work out a favourable price.

Tell you what how about we go halfs and turn it into a luxury hotel.

We get year round penthouse rooms of course!

EDIT: thats alot of salvage, dont salvagers usually go to the bottom of the sea for that stuff? make some calls people!

reply to post by Biigs


I like your thinking.

reply to post by Bonkrh


I should make it clear here I'm the only one who's blown the whistle on the cracks in the Ninian Central. These other people you mention are Dead Messenger on Peters excellent forum. I'm Dead Messenger. I'm not going to sign back into Peters site just to prove that. And the main whistleblower, underterraingrunter. That's also me. If you look at the date I started the underterraingrunter channel and do a news archive search you'll see the Ninian Central was shut down for inspection within days of me starting that channel. I had taken my concerns direct to Sandy Stewart of HSE. He was obviously instructed to fob me off. So I started that channel and made numerous comments on the Union Terrace Gardens videos, (UTG=underterraingrunter). The cat was out of the bag and they had to find an excuse for action.

This is the way the North Sea Oil industry is run. Shoddy, ill thought out construction in a very hostile marine environment. Equipment run far beyond its design life all for the sake of a few barrels more.

The workforce who built the Ninian Central have great pride in their work. They didn't design it, they didn't make the decisions. It isn't their fault it's a disaster waiting to happen, they were just bringing home a wage.

If anyone with local Kishorn knowledge doubts my word, I saw John Balgy pick up a 10 foot 12 by 12 under one arm and throw it into the back of his transit van. I'm not surprised he skinned all those sheep and nailed their skins up along the road. The wacky races took their toll. I marvelled at the tenacity of 'Sticky' Willie. He burnt his boat rather than sell it to the heathens who foolishly asked him if he'd sell it on the Lords day. I thought he'd moved it till I noticed the rivets and the ashes. I borrowed Johns boat and the transom came loose as we rowed back. I had to bail out with my wellington boot. Mrs Marks hit me over the head with a hoe because I trod on one of her daffodils. If you've got local knowledge you'll know I was there. I saw those photographs. The Ninian Central Platform cracked during construction. It's a decommissioning nightmare. The only thing it's good for now is providing work for spin doctors.

i bet my bottom dollar, they are not going to decomm it. They're going to fake an accident and drive up the oil prices at the right time.

yeo, thanks for keeping us informed. DWH was similarly a planned disaster.

mkollmann.newsvine.com...

reply to post by michkollmann


This was a terrible event.



That huge vessel next to the Piper Alpha is the Tharos. It's still in service, now known as the Transocean Marianas. On October 7, 2009, it began drilling on the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico.

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by michkollmann

Tharos was designed by Red Adair.

"Red brought important innovations to off shore oil well fire fighting as well. He designed Tharos, a huge, twin-hulled, self-propelled work barge with a deck area as big as two-and-a-half football fields. She was a fire fighting vessel capable of pumping 40,000 gallons of water per minute from 240 feet away. Tharos was close at hand when, in July 1988, the Piper Alpha oil production platform exploded and burned in the North Sea , killing 167 people. It was Red who responded to that disaster, using Tharos to extinguish the fire and cap the 36 wells involved."

www.dipity.com...

Given the speed of the disaster, it was indeed fortunate that Tharos was one of the Pipers support vessels.

This from gcaptain.com

"Originally named the MSV Tharos, the Marianas was built by the famed Red Adair as a firefighting support rig. The rig included space for the launch of helicopters, powerful firefighting equipment and even a 22 bed hospital. These attributes saved lives in July of 1988 when the Piper Alpha production platform exploded in flames and the Tharos was dispatched to rescue survivors.

Today no such platform exists. US Coast Guard officials have testified that launching the first search and rescue helicopter took 24 minutes the night of the Macondo blowout and flight time to the incident location took significantly longer. Once on location, helicopters could only standby for short periods of time before running out of fuel. Eventually the Cutter Zephyr was dispatched to provide a platform for the coordination of efforts but due to her distance from the incident she was slow in arriving."

Today no such platform exists, yet as we see in the video Tharos was right there at the critical moment. Years later Tharos went on to begin drilling the Macondo. It's a good thing there aren't any conspiracy wackos on this site. They'd be going crazy over this.


Search Piper Alpha here to locate some light bedtime reading.
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk...

Getting back to the potential for disaster posed by the cracks in the Ninian here's our national ploughing champion, (he uses his head), presenting an easy to watch tutorial.

Here's some more on concrete oil rig construction. I suspect the lessons learnt during the construction of the Ninian Central have been applied here. Don't pour too fast may well be one of those lessons.



Here's Richard's record breaking head ploughing performance.



We can probably shut down one or two oil wells now that he's written that car off.

This happened in Bantry Bay, Ireland, in 1979.



Here is the wikipedia entry.

en.wikipedia.org...

Wikipedia tells us...
"Immediately before the incident, the vessel's hull and tanks were cracked, corroded and leaking. The 11-year-old vessel had been worked hard and was at the end of its service life."

It isn't likely that the Ninian Central will be conveniently replaced just because it's cracked, corroded, leaking and at the end of its service life.

Wikipedia also tells us...
"There was some controversy over the exact timing of events and the response of the terminal management to the disaster as it unfolded. Some local residents claimed that there was anything up to 5 minutes between the audible structural failure of the vessel and the time at which the initial explosion happened. If this were so, the opportunity to attempt an evacuation had been missed. However, the terminal management insisted that the explosion had almost immediately followed the structural failure:"

When I was in that area I was told in order to save money the jetty was not connected to the island. If it had been the men would have had time to run to the island and escape the blast that killed them.

This is a comment on youtube.

"My father God rest him tied up that ship and was due on the night after. He lost so many friends that night. Gulf-Typical multinational scumbags. No counselling for the workers. Back to work collecting bodies on the seashore next day. I was only a kid but I remember him coming home from the funerals crying and upset. There could have been some people saved that night if the rescue boat had gone straight to the jetty rather than waiting to pick up the bosses"

www.flickr.com... 363492872/

Originally posted by Kester

When I was in that area I was told in order to save money the jetty was not connected to the island. If it had been the men would have had time to run to the island and escape the blast that killed them.

"There could have been some people saved that night if the rescue boat had gone straight to the jetty rather than waiting to pick up the bosses"

Now I see this photograph.

www.flickr.com...

It looks like the jetty was once connected to the island. I would guess the bridge was removed to make it easier to use both sides of the jetty. Presumably profit was the motive. Does anyone have information on this?

I don't consider it wise to give anyone permission to make decisions on my behalf. Therefore I don't vote or support any political group. But I do support individuals who seem to make sense. This is one such individual. He made this video long before the Macondo blowout. This is evidence that well informed warnings should be heeded.



Mods please note this is not a political statement of any sort. I can't find any other individuals who put it as clearly as this man.

This report gives some insight into the problem at Blackdog beach, Aberdeen, Scotland.

news.bbc.co.uk...

An unknown but very large quantity of drilling waste was dumped in the sand dunes here. It is slowly seeping through the sand and out into the sea. Youtube videos on the subject have been disappearing. I have to wonder if pressure is being applied.


These gardens....


...are at risk of being destroyed with oil money. Search Union Terrace Gardens to learn more.

The dreadful problems created by the oil industry are not being dealt with adequately. Profits are instead being thrown away on ridiculous and destructive schemes such as this.

The Ninian Central was finished in 1978. After 1978 the type of grout and method of application used to seal the prestressing tendon ducts in concrete offshore platforms were improved. These improvements were made because it had been found the ducts, particularly horizontal ducts, were often not fully filled. The cracks in the Ninian are vertical and of a considerable size. Given the harsh weather conditions it seems likely these cracks may have reopened to some extent. I can't see how patching them could be expected to be 100% efficient.

This means most likely seawater has been in contact with a large number of horizontal prestressing tendons. Can any engineers suggest what effect that is likely to have had on the integrity of the structure?

This is the wikipedia entry on prestressed concrete.

en.wikipedia.org...

This is the relevant information from that entry.

"History of problems with bonded post-tensioned bridges
The popularity of this form of prestressing for bridge construction in Europe increased significantly around the 1950s and 60s. However, a history of problems have been encountered that has cast doubt over the long-term durability of such structures.
Due to poor workmanship of quality control during construction, sometimes the ducts containing the prestressing tendons are not fully filled, leaving voids in the grout where the steel is not protected from corrosion. The situation is exacerbated if water and chloride (from de-icing salts) from the highway are able to penetrate into these voids.
Notable events are listed below:
The Ynys-y-Gwas bridge in West Glamorgan, Wales – a segmental post-tensioned structure, particularly vulnerable to defects in the post-tensioning system – collapsed without warning in 1984.
The Melle bridge, constructed in Belgium during the 1950s, collapsed in 1992 due to failure of post-tensioned tie down members following tendon corrosion.
Following discovery of tendon corrosion in several bridges in England, the Highways Agency issued a moratorium on the construction of new internal grouted post-tensioned bridges and embarked on a 5-year programme of inspections on its existing post-tensioned bridge stock.
In 2000, a large number of people were injured when a section of a footbridge at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, USA, gave way and dropped to the ground. In this case, corrosion was exacerbated by calcium chloride that had been used as a concrete admixture, rather than sodium chloride from de-icing salts.
In 2011, the Hammersmith Flyover in London, England, was subject to an emergency closure after defects in the post-tensioning system were discovered."

Here is the wikipedia entry on offshore concrete structures.

en.wikipedia.org...

I can't help noticing that structures were built in 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, then a gap till 81, 82, 83, 84. Is this just coincidence or were lessons being assimilated?