Fire and Blast Information Group

The Fire and Blast Information Group (FABIG) is a not-for-profit, membership based organization created in the UK in 1992 in the wake of the Piper Alpha disaster to continue the sharing and dissemination of expert knowledge on fires and explosions arising from the major research projects carried out in the early 1990s.

FABIG has become an internationally recognized body for the development and dissemination of guidance for hydrocarbon fires and explosions for offshore platforms and onshore petrochemical plants.

The mission of FABIG is to disseminate knowledge and best practice and to develop guidance on the prevention and mitigation of fires and explosions and on the protection of facilities and personnel against fires and explosions.

FABIG Membership comprises 85 member organizations worldwide derived from the oil and gas industry and including oil and gas companies, consultants, contractors, regulators, verifiers, manufacturers and university researchers. All the supermajors are members of FABIG.

On the 6th of July 1988, the Piper Alpha disaster claimed the lives of 167 people and destroyed the Piper Alpha platform. The accident, which is the worst offshore accident to date, drew the attention of the offshore industry and the regulators to the damage that could arise in the event of an explosion and fire on an offshore platform, and triggered changes that have shaped the current offshore regulatory and operating environment.

Following the recommendations of the public inquiry led by Lord Cullen which followed Piper Alpha, the Offshore Safety Division (OSD) was created in April 1991 within the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to take responsibility for safety of the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS), and the Safety Case Regulations 1992 (SCR 92) came into force on the 30th of November 1993. The SCR 92 have been the key instrument of new the goal setting regime for the UK offshore industry.

The offshore industry responded to the challenges presented by the disaster trough initiatives including joint industry projects sponsored by organizations with full scale fire and/or explosion tests. The first major research project that followed the Piper Alpha disaster was Phase 1 of the Joint Industry Project on Blast and Fire Engineering for Topside Structures (BFETS) that was undertaken between May 1990 and July 1991. It resulted in 26 reports that summarized the industry understanding of fire and explosion engineering and in the release of the Interim Guidance Notes (IGN). These guidelines were called “interim” due to fast changing design concepts and the numerous gaps in understanding of loading and resistance to explosion and fire that were highlighted in BFETS Phase 1.

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