1. What happened? Describe the actual realisation of the event.
On March 4, 1998, near Pitkin, Louisiana, a Bulk Third stage separator in a Facility owned by Sonat Exploration co. exploded, causing around $200,000 worth of damage to equipment and resulted in 4 deaths. The process utilised two wells, where one was located 2 miles (3.2kms) away. In order for ideal production, the pipelines needed to be purged to remove the air as the air was purged it was unable to escape to the atmosphere, resulting in over-pressurisation within the tanks which were unaccounted for, resulting in rupturing of the tank, releasing flammable material which in present with any ignition source ignited resulting in a large fireball.
2. What were the consequences of
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Four workers were killed immediately due to being within close distance of the separator (See Figure 1). The operator which was near the head was thrown five feet due to the blast, as well as the construction supervisor whom was severely jolted as he exited his truck, however both survived with no serious injuries. The total damage is claimed to be around $200,000 as the separator, the vehicles of four personnel were damaged, as well as the backhoe, oil and water storage tanks were damaged as …show more content…
As shown in Figure 2; valve 11 and 13 must remain open during the process (Planned Valve Lineup) however, the valves 11 and 13 were closed during the process (As Found Valve Lineup) for the third-stage separator. Since the valves were closed, there was not a process by which the purge gas could vent out. The purge gas could have vented out through the block valve 14 and 15, however they remained closed (See Figure 2). A Block valve does not replace a pressure relief system but can contribute to the division of the separator and the storage tanks. As a result of the valves remaining closed, there was a build-up of high pressure purge gas within the vessel. Hence leading to one aspect of the failure. Whilst designing the system, Sonat considered the third stage separator as a vapour recovery tower which was identified as a storage tank. Consequently, the design was done accordingly and there was a lack of a pressure relief system which would account for any human errors and mechanical failures that may occur. Furthermore, Sonat did not produce any documented piping and instrumental diagram before the incident. This meant that, thorough analyses of the plant could not have been done or was either done ineffectively. Hence, safety issues concerning the plant were not addressed and appropriate modifications were not made which could have prevented
There are multiple important people and organizations involved with this gasoline pipeline explosion. The most important would be the Olympic Pipeline Company itself. The Olympic Pipeline Company is operated by BP Pipelines. BP Pipelines is the second largest pipeline company in the United States. There were a few important employees involved in this case that worked for Olympic. There were the inspectors of the gasoline pipeline, which were to inspect the pipeline’s mechanics. Also, there were the employees who were responsible for installing a pressure relief system that did not work. In addition, the computer system administrator was very important since this person was working on the software development of the pipeline’s control system during
[1]. Lateef, M. (2013). CNN: Report: As many as 35 killed in Texas plant explosion
"Soon the 4-inch drill pipe…shot skyward. After the mud, water, and pipe were blown out, gas followed, but only for a short time. Then the well was very quiet. We ventured back, after our wild scramble for safety, to find things in a terrible mess...We started shoveling the mud away-when, without warning, a lot of heavy mud shot out of the well with the report of a cannon…In a very short time oil was going up through the top of the derricks, and rocks were being shot hundreds of feet into the air. Within a very few minutes, the oil was holding a steady flow at more than twice the height of the derrick…”
explosion forcing it to collapse the way it did. Some survivors of the tragic event along with
Recently, a fire in El Segundo has occurred around October 17 a Tuesday night until the next day October 18 Wednesday at 10-11 o’clock at night. Hot orange yellow flames spread and a cloud of dark gray smoke traveled. According to Abc7 that, “firefighters responded to what has happened to the Chevron refinery and took them about 45 minutes to extinguish.” This refinery was built in 1911 and situated on 324 W. El Segundo Boulevard. A statement said by Chevron, “It is one of the largest on the West Coast, processes 274,000+ barrels of crude everyday, covers 1,000 acres, storage capacity of 12, and 5 million barrels in 150 storage tanks larger than 30 feet in diameter.” No flights were interfered with since it is south of Los Angeles International
The Texas City disaster took place on April 16th, 1947, with the detonation of 2300 tons of ammonium nitrate, near the Texas City docks. The Grandcamp was set to embark on an assigned trip to Europe to help in the reconstruction of various countries in the aftermath of the Second World War. The ships were loaded with 32.5 % ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which is a high explosive used in military and mining operations. The result of which was a DDT which is a deflagration to detonation causing a massive explosion leading to many deaths, destroyed homes, and the surroundings being ruined. The leading causes of this horrific tragedy were poor transportation and storing laws of ammonium nitrate which was a main component in the disaster, if these two components had have been handled with more care the lives of innocent people would not have been lost.
A gas company employee, who had gone to check on the leak Tuesday night, was critically hurt with second- and third-degree burns, the police department said. He was airlifted to a hospital.But three people who were believed to have been staying at the hotel were unaccounted for Wednesday morning, said John Hawkins of the Bremerton Fire Department. It wasn't clear whether the three were inside the building when the blast happened, he said.
Just moments after being given instructions to climb to a higher altitude “the captain stated, ‘Look at that crazy fuel flow indicator their on number four, see that?’” (TWA flight crash). Afterwards, in an investigation lead by the Nation Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) they concluded that the cause of the crash was due to the combustion of the mixture of air and fuel in the “center wing fuel tank” (TWA flight crash). It is no wonder why many people believe the cause of the crash was a fuel tank explosion. Later, the NTSB claimed that two worn down wires must have sparked in the fuel tank, exploding the whole plane (Cole 36). The NTSB also that the flammability in the central wing fuel tank, due to the hazardous mixture of air and fuel, was too high (TWA Flight 800). Based on the various tests and investigations of the crash, mechanical failure has remained one of the most accepted theories of the flight’s
This Article talks about the methane leak that took place in Porter Ranch Los Angeles, but the were no casualties. There was a leakage from Aliso Canyon natural-gas storage facility, which was one hundred thousand tons of methane, and it is considered to be one of the worst environmental disasters. More than 2,000 families were evacuated from their neighborhood after some people encountered headaches, vomiting, and bloody noses.
Prior to the disaster, the company had been facing a financial crisis for many years because the sale of pesticides had been fallen (Joseph, Kaszniak and Long 2005, p. 544). Due to the budget cuts, many plant operators received insufficient training on operations and safety awareness (Mannan 2012, p. 2649). As shown in Figure 1, there was a decrease in the length of training programmes for plant operators from 18 months in 1975 to only one month in December 1984 (Chouhan 2005, p. 207). Therefore, with a lack of the knowledge of runaway reactions occurring in the storage tank when the accident happened, many workers could not immediately take any emergency action to lessen the risk of the MIC escape from the storage tank (Chouhan 2005, p. 207). To connect the tank with another
At 9:03 a.m. a massive bomb resting inside a rented Ryder truck destroyed half of the nine story federal building in downtown Oklahoma City. It also claimed the lives of 169 men, women, and children, while injuring hundreds
It sent one person to the hospital and many others injured. This explosion didn’t happen because of a drilling process, it happened because a propane-holding truck was on the well pad and exploded. This just shows that fracking is extremely dangerous and that anything can happen during the process, even just a spark or a little error can lead to a potentially deadly well fire that burns out of control and causes multiple injuries.
Workers employed at the time the depot was operating, could recall various pits around the facility where the excess waste was dumped and buried. Many of these pits contained numerous parts, solvents, cleaners, oils, greases, and fuels. Employees could recall the times where the pits were just ignited, and the materials were burnt off so that the pits
The Deepwater Horizon was one of the largest offshore oil-drilling rigs in the world. During its more than nine years of service, all of which were under lease to the British Petroleum Company, numerous inspections were conducted by the federal Minerals Management Service (MMS). The exact number of inspection cannot be verified due to lack of proper recordkeeping and supporting documentation. The number of inspections has varied between eighty-three and eighty-eight, with as many as forty-eight being conducted since January, 2005. (Kunzelman & Burke, 2010). One of the safety violations documented during an inspection was on the blowout valve that failed causing the fireball that ignited the drilling platform. The question arises as to
Thirty people were killed instantly. Eight later died from their injuries and hundreds of others were injured. A majority of the persons killed were messengers making deliveries, stenographers, clerks, and brokers (Gross, 2001).The blast was so strong it sent debris soaring as high as 34 floors and derailed a street car one block over(Andrews, 2014). Buildings shook as their large windows burst inwards. Luckily, most of the occupants inside were spared