Posted By MT
Thanks for that - sounds like an interesting programme, so I'll look it up on iPlayer.

As for Oil Riggers - I've barely been able to watch it, as I was so horrified by their practices!

Posted By Graham Bullough
Firstly a reminder that the 3rd and final episode of this interesting series is showing tonight on BBC4 at 21.00. Repeats of all the episodes are being screened at diverse times over the next few days as shown at http://www.bbc.co.uk/pro...0lbnyn/episodes/upcoming

Did the coverage of the Piper Alpha disaster in episode 2 mention that one outcome was the transfer of enforcement responsibility for offshore health & safety from the Dept of Energy to HSE? If not, perhaps it might be mentioned in episode 3. In retrospect it seems extraordinary that Piper Alpha did not have automatic shut-off valves for its high pressure oil & gas pipes. Though another outcome of the disaster was that such valves became mandatory, did any other installation have such valves before the disaster? If so, does anyone know roughly what proportion of North Sea installations had them?

I’ve no direct connection with the North Sea industry. Apart from visiting various premises which served the industry during my early years as an HSE inspector based in Aberdeen during the late 1970s, the furthest I got “offshore” was with a colleague to visit a rig in Aberdeen Bay which was drilling shafts in the seabed to link with a new sewage outfall tunnel. We went out in a small motor boat and then transferred to the rig using what I understand is termed a “doughnut” ring. Seeing one in action in episode 1 of the TV series reminded me of the trip. For those not familiar with them, it comprises a net in the shape of a cone dangling from the hook of a crane on the rig. At the bottom of the cone is a large horizontal rubber ring.

When the crane driver positioned the cone on the unfenced transfer deck at the back of the motor boat we had to get on it and remain with our feet on the ring and hands grasping the net as the cone was hoisted some 80 feet or more and swung onto the drill rig. I can’t recall much of the visit except that the relatively shallow depth of the bay meant that the divers involved didn’t need to live in compression facilities. During our visit we were advised to leave earlier than planned because a storm was brewing and could maroon us on the rig for some considerable time. There was no doubt that a storm was developing because the sea was becoming decidedly rough. Therefore, if our outward doughnut ring ride was scary, our return ride seemed doubly so. The scariest bit was getting off the ring onto the boat. Because of the sea swell the boat transfer deck repeatedly rose up to and dropped away from the ring so we had to get our timing right and make sure we stepped onto the deck just as it had risen to meet the ring. Out of curiosity are doughnut rings still used today offshore? If so, are they used as described or has their design been amended/improved?

Posted By A Campbell
A good desciption of a 'Billy Pew'! I always remember my first time getting onboard with these... you amaze at the height of the rig.
As a medic I have had to go onto fishing boats and supply vessels in all kinds of weather and gets the blood rushing!

Here's a example of one http://www.trawlerphotos...howphoto.php?photo=36107

There is now a system termed 'the frog' used in some areas whereby people are seated and have a safety belt i believe?
Although I feel the old tried and tested method was inherent in such that you could hop on and off with timing of the swell far faster!

Posted By Chris Packham
The comment on timing when getting off the doughnut brings back old memories. Many years ago I was involved in loading tankers at a terminal on the North African coast. Tankers were loaded via subsea pipelines and were moored about 5 miles offshore in the open sea. Swells could be up to, and sometimes in excess of, twelve feet.

Climbing down the ropeladder from the tanker having completed documentation meant transferring to a launch that was rising and falling on the swell. You had to remain far enough up the ladder that your legs could not be trapped between launch and tanker on an unusually high wave. At the right moment you had to jump from the ladder to the launch. You did this just as the launch was reaching the top of the wave.

To early and the impact between falling you and rising launch could break an ankle. Too late and you would follow the launch down into the trough, possibly with more serious damage.

However, in the three and a half years that I was there we never had an accident doing this.

I shudder to think what a risk assessment today would have shown up!

Chris