The man whose report into the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster led to sweeping reforms within the oil and gas industry has called for a cultural change in the sector.

Lord Cullen of Whitekirk issued a call to industry leaders to be alert to signs of danger, highlighting past examples in which warning signs were ignored with tragic consequences.

Lord Cullen was giving a keynote speech at Oil and Gas UK's Safety 30 conference, taking place in Aberdeen almost three decades on from the Piper Alpha tragedy.

The North Sea platform off the coast of Aberdeen exploded in July 1988, killing 167 people. A subsequent inquiry led by Lord Cullen resulted in more than 100 changes to safety practice.

In his speech, he said: "There is much to be learnt from the reasons for major accidents, by which I mean the underlying reasons for those accidents.

"Those factors tend to recur, whatever the context, so they remain highly relevant despite differences in conditions over the course of time."

He told the audience at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre: "When I read reports about major accidents, I'm struck by how frequently they had been preceded by signs indicating danger.

"But those signs were not recognised or, at any rate, effectively acted on to prevent the accidents in question, or at any rate to limit their extent."

Lord Cullen highlighted reports issued in the 1980s which pointed to possible risks associated with the Piper Alpha platform ahead of the tragedy.

"In the event, those reports predicted what actually happened on the night of the disaster," he said, adding that management had shown a "dangerously superficial approach" to the identification of potential hazards.

The Piper Alpha platform was engulfed in a ball of flames after a gas leak ignited on July 6, 1988. It was the world's worst offshore oil and gas tragedy.

Oil and Gas UK chief executive Deirdre Michie said: "We must continually think the unthinkable in our industry - as even though there was an appreciation of major accident hazards at risks at the time of Piper Alpha, the scale of the incident that unfolded was unimaginable.

"Quite rightly, it represented a watershed moment for health and safety in our industry."