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The importance of ATEX on offshore platforms

How to save lifes and protect the environment on and around offshore platforms?

It sounds quite easy, but it isn´t for sure. Hearing news or reading press confirms that cruel accidents happen on a regular basis due to wrong handling or part selection. Quite a big number of them also accur due to poor or missing maintenance procedures.

Considering constrains, which are discussed quite openly around reduced investments in the Oil and Gas industry, makes me hoping that there are wise people making the right decisions on where to spend their shrinked down budgets. Especially high explosion areas like the ones on oil rigs can be ticking time bombs if the wrong decisions are made.

Remembering back the disaster on 20th of April 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico on the Deepwater Horizon which costed BP over 50 bn USD. This is quite a lot of dollars, but we all know some things which happened cannot be paid back with money - and I do not just mean the damage to BPs prestige.

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As far as I remember the official reason was defective cement on the well - but later the White House commission blamed BP and its partners for a series of cost-cutting decisions and an insufficient safety system.

I´m not an expert, but rather than sitting there and hoping that all goes well, I would recommend to establish proper maintenance procedures and educate maintenance engineers to fix things before they break. As I said I´m not the expert - so let us all assume that since what´s happened in April 2010 mindsets have changed. Not just at BP.

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