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The Accidental Century –
Prominent Energy Accidents in the Last 100 Years
a report by
Benjamin K Sovacool
Accidents & Safety
Assistant Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore
HSE –
We live in a risky society, yet have difficulty properly weighing the risks regulation, quality assurance, safety culture and the effectiveness of
that we face. Many politicians consider the spread of HIV/AIDS to be the medical response.
world’s most significant public health concern, yet more people perish
from heart disease, influenza, diabetes, suicide and malaria. Policy- Several interesting conclusions relate specifically to the oil and gas
makers in the US consider the ‘war on illegal drugs’ a serious endeavour, sectors. In terms of the oil sector, the authors noted that higher oil
yet more people die from overusing legal over-the-counter drugs. consumption over time has increased the number of severe oil-related
Millions of people are afraid of flying in an aeroplane, yet prefer private accidents, resulting in a greater numbers of fatalities. The ‘riskiest’
automobiles that place them at greater risk of being killed in an accident. stages appeared to be when oil was being distributed through regional
pipelines and trucks or transported to refineries. These two stages
These examples illustrate that what we perceive as the riskiest activities accounted for more than three-quarters of all oil-related accidents.
may not be so, and underscore that the most visible risks may not always Maritime accidents were the most frequent type to occur during
be the most significant. One of these types of less visible risk, one growing transportation to refineries, whereas road accidents were the most
in frequency and importance, is major accidents in the energy sector. This frequent during regional distribution. The most dangerous environment
article takes a hard look at prominent energy accidents by asking ‘What for offshore oil activities was the North Sea, which had the highest share
have been the most significant energy accidents of the past 100 years?’ of severe offshore accidents. Accidents and oil spills related to oil tankers
and ‘What are the risks involved with different energy systems?’ and platforms were less damaging than those caused by industrial river
run-off, operational discharges from tankers, sewage disposal and non-
Energy Accidents in the Last 100 Years tanker forms of maritime transportation (such as undersea pipelines).
To answer the first question, two studies, one conducted in Europe and For those accidents related to tankers and platforms, distance from the
one in the US, provide much food for thought. The first study, coast, weather conditions and sensitivity of the areas exposed strongly
conducted by the Paul Scherrer Institute, involved collecting data on influenced the extent of environmental and social damages.
major industrial accidents from 1945 to 1996 and recorded 13,914
incidents.
1
An astounding 31% of these accidents were related to the In terms of the natural gas, LPG and liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector,
energy sector.
2
The managers of the database noted that accident rates the yearly number of accidents increased significantly from 1970 to
were highest in countries not belonging to the Organisation for 1985 but then declined. The stage with the highest number of fatalities
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). They found that the was long-distance transport, followed by local and regional
most significant immediate fatality rates were associated with liquid distribution. Nearly three-quarters of all natural gas accidents were
petroleum gas (LPG), followed by oil, coal and natural gas; seven of the associated with pipelines, and about 21% of these accidents involved
10 accidents with the largest fatalities involved oil or LPG energy mechanical failure. When the data on LPG accidents are separated,
systems (see Table 1). They noted that the frequency and severity of more than half occurred during transport by road and rail tankers, and
accidents differed predominately according to flaws in design, the dominant cause was impact failure. Accidents related to natural gas
were distributed evenly across many countries.
Benjamin K Sovacool is an Assistant Professor at the Lee
The second study, published in the May 2008 issue of Energy Policy
Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National
University of Singapore. He is also a Research Fellow in
(and written by the current author), assessed major energy accidents
the Energy Governance Programme at the Centre on
worldwide from 1907 to 2007.
3
The study identified 279 incidents
Asia and Globalisation. Dr Sovacool has worked as a
researcher, professor and consultant on issues
totalling US$41 billion in damages and 182,156 fatalities, with the
pertaining to energy policy, the environment and science number of accidents peaking in the decade between 1978 and 1987,
and technology policy. His research interests are in
which had more than 90 accidents.
4
The study found that accidents at
science and technology studies, with an emphasis on
barriers to new and innovative energy systems. He has worked in advisory and research
dams were the most dangerous, accidents at nuclear power plants the
capacities at the US National Science Foundation’s Electric Power Networks Efficiency
most expensive and accidents at oil and gas pipelines the most frequent
and Security Program, the Virginia Tech Consortium on Energy Restructuring, the Virginia
(see Figure 1).
Center for Coal and Energy Research, the New York State Energy Research and
Development Authority, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Semiconductor Materials and
Equipment International and the US Department of Energy’s Climate Change Technology
The six most significant energy accidents, in terms of fatalities or property
Program. Dr Sovacool is the co-editor (with Marilyn A Brown) of Energy and American
Society: Thirteen Myths (2007) and the author of The Dirty Energy Dilemma: What’s Blocking
damage, involved different energy systems. The Shimantan hydroelectric
Clean Power in the United States (2008). He is also a frequent contributor to journals such facility in China failed catastrophically in 1975, causing almost US$9
as Electricity Journal and Energy Policy.
billion in property damage and 171,000 deaths. Equipment failures and
E:
bsovacool@nus.edu.sg
operator error contributed to the loss of coolant and a partial core
meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania in
© TOUCH BRIEFINGS 2009
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