BackDROPS Forum - Aberdeen, 20th May 2015
DROPS UK Forum Minutes
Urban Village Hotel, Aberdeen
The meeting was opened by Greg and a safety brief was delivered. Round the room introductions followed.
Membership
Since last Forum, we are delighted to welcome the following new DROPS members:
Applus RTD – Netherlands
Kongsberg Oil & Gas Technologies – UK
Otaoilf Services Limited – Nigeria
Safety First Testing and Inspection - India
Capital Safety Group NE Ltd - UK
Lee C Moore, A Woolslayer Company – USA
Quality Control Iraq – Egypt
Sure NDT - Thailand
DROPS International
DROPS Asia Steering Committee are planning a Forum for later this year. Details to follow as soon as venue and date are confirmed.
DROPS North America Forum presently being planned for August in Houston. Further details to follow when date and venue are confirmed.
DROPS Middle East Forum is also being planned for later in 2015 to coincide with Training Workshops – again details to follow in due course.
DROPS Global extending support to Regional Chapters for these and other events. Please advise Regional colleagues and contacts of any forthcoming events and encourage engagement.
At request of SfS (Norway) DROPS will present at their annual Board Meeting in Stavanger in June.
As ever, you will find details of all upcoming international events at www.dropsonline.org
DROPS Training
Since last forum, several UK DROPS Train-the-Trainer sessions have been held at Silverdot’s offices and at member companies in Aberdeen area. See Training section of www.dropsonline.org for details of all upcoming scheduled training.
If it has been some time since your training was undertaken, consider a revisit. DROPS Train-the-Trainer has evolved and developed considerably over the years into a far more comprehensive package.
International training recently held in USA, Canada, Brazil, Bahrain and Holland.
Further international training is being held soon in Equatorial Guinea.
Training will also be available to coincide with the International DROPS Forums.
For queries, further details and registration for DROPS training contact training@dropsonline.org.
European DROPS Forums
Dates for the next Aberdeen Forums will be 17th September and 1st December.
Our Norwegian Forum will be held in Stavanger in September with final venue and date to be advised in due course.
DROPS Focus Groups
We have established three new Focus Groups to look at: Human Factors; Maintenance and Inspection of Secondary Retention / Securing; and DROPS Awareness through Supply Chain and with Manufacturers. You can still join any Focus Group by contacting secretary@dropsonline.org.
Our DORIS (Statistical Database) Focus Group will reform later in the year to consider the way ahead. Previous members will be invited to rejoin and there will be an opportunity for new members to join.
Members are reminded that we also have the opportunity to tackle any “quick hit” improvements, products or communications – suggestions always welcomed to admin@dropsonline.org.
DROPS Products
DROPS Campaign Pack Updates were issued to all members and subscribers in March, with each update now including 2GB of DROPS material in digital format.
Additional printed copies of our new Backloading booklet and the associated backload tags are now available for purchase from www.dropsonline.org. The booklets have been well received in Holland and Norway and work is underway on Dutch and Norwegian translations.
With the support of Brazilian members, work has commenced on a Portuguese translation of Reliable Securing Rev 3. Subject to continued regional support we hope to have this available later in the year to join our Russian, Arabic and Spanish translations.
DROPS met with Norway’s SfS late March to consider harmonising the content of our Reliable Securing booklet with their Norwegian booklet at next iteration (Rev 4) due for 2016. All agree that this is a great idea and mutually beneficial. We will be looking to reform the Reliable Securing Focus / Review Group later this year, hopefully with significant representation and input from SfS.
Presenters
Greg thanked today’s Presenters and invited members to submit their nominations or requests for consideration as future presentations or table-top demonstrations to secretary@dropsonline.org. Members were also requested to continue to share alerts and lessons learned with us via admin@dropsonline.org
Member Events
Aquaterra were hosting a Safety Expo event at their training centre the following day and a warm welcome was extended to all DROPS members to attend the event. Aquaterra also left promotional literature for the event. DROPS subsequently heard from Aquaterra that event was a great success and that the event will be repaeated next year on May 19th, 2016.
DROPS Website
Greg advised that the updated DROPS website (www.dropsonline.org) will go live week commencing June 1st. All members will have the opportunity to suggest new or amended content, including member company profile details.
The new website offers a host of backroom facilities that will help us to communicate more efficiently, effectively and regularly moving forward.
Greg gave a brief presentation of the look, structure and functionality of the new site.
Presentations
Tubular Handling Activities – Stewart Gillies, ADC
Stewart gave an overview of the ADC methodology employed for review/inspection of tubular handling activities. This included a documentation review, a matrix, physical inspection of the equipment etc. The matrix provides structure to all the items of equipment identified, procedures, maintenance and processes. Also included is training and competence of the crew. An example of the matrix was shown which included competencies, processes, and procedures observations. A traffic light system is adopted to highlight the different observations. The document review looks at the equipment list, management system and any details of DROPS or Tubular Handling Incidents.
Typical scenarios for various types of incidents and activities included supply boat to pipe deck transfer, BHA construction, RIH/POOH etc. Stewart discussed the equipment and crew competence assessments in detail. Example findings from these activities have highlighted: over-complex management systems; OEM Bulletins not embedded, etc. An extract of the full presentation is available to download here. For further information, please contact ADC directly.
Around the World in 230 Days – Allen Smith, DROPS
We were given an interesting insight into Allen’s findings and observations from his recent journeys overseas in promotion of the DROPS Train-the-Trainer Programme.
In South America, there has been an industry workshop and collaboration with NOC and drilling contractors to engage with them in getting back to basics with dropped object prevention.
In North America, Allen has undertaken a variety of field visits, each providing their own unique challenges and learnings. He observed limited exposure to DROPS in the far north of US, where he delivered a sponsored T-T-T course with delegates from the full supply chain.
Next on Allen’s itinerary were multiple visits to Sakhalin where they have adopted and fully engaged in a comprehensive DROPS Programme.
In Australasia, Allen noted that great use had been made of the information and best practice available to download from the DROPS website. He also observed that this Region works very closely with Local Authorities and other industries, eg mining.
In the Middle East, Allen witnessed a great demand for knowledge and information on dropped object prevention and a great emphasis on certification and competence.
In Africa, there is a huge demand for training and education but the application of DROPS is very heavily influenced by the Operators which can have positive and negative impacts.
In all areas of the world there are business and cultural influences but the consequences of an incident occurring are universal. Allen reiterated the need for preventive controls before mitigating controls and touched on key definitions in DROPS and the importance of understanding the Basics. The DROPS tools are a great source of information and Allen encouraged leadership to engage and share the DROPS message and learnings globally. A copy of the full presentation is available to download here.
2015 Focus Group Updates
Human Factors
Greg gave a brief update on behalf of this group to advise that they have met and pulled together a list of Dropped Object incidents from each of the members of the group. Currently, they are analysing the data to look at trends and to come up with common aspects that will provide the group with a meaningful Human Factor output. The Group will present their progress at next Forum.
Maintenance and Inspection standards for periodic secondary retention and securing – Adam Gibson, OES
Adam provided an update for the group, noting that they are pulling together a table format document that will provide a high-level and harmonised checklist in respect of inspection and maintenance of retention and securing equipment, processes and procedures. The Group will report on progress at the next Forum. If you have any information to provide to this group, please email secretary@dropsonline.org
Supply Chain and Manufacturers - providing DROPS Guidance/Best Practice – Lukasz Szadkowski
This group have met and are using the current DROPS Supply Chain Roadmap to identify members at each stage of the supply chain. They plan to issue a questionnaire to members identified at each of these staging posts. The feedback will be interrogated to identify trends, strengths and weaknesses. All members receiving a questionnaire are kindly requested to complete and return the details in a timely manner in support of this important Focus Group If you wish to join this Focus Group please contact either secretary@dropsonline.org or Lukasz directly via Lukasz.Szadkowski@nov.com
Dropped Object Awareness DVD – Allan Smith, Technip
Allan explained that Technip have developed a high-level safety action plan with 12 key safety actions – 6 Actions to Always Take, and 6 Action to Never Take. One of these action areas focuses on Dropped Objects. Technip are still experiencing dropped object incidents despite all the current processes and tools available. Photos of difference risks and exposures were shown and Allan described the various vessels and highlighted the issues they can face. Their statistics were shown from 2010 to date. Over 72 incidents were recorded in 2012 and there has been a slight downwards trend for 2013 and 2014. Currently there are 32 recorded for 2015 and they are trying to ensure that this year does not follow the previous two. Steps taken include developing and implementing a new Dropped Object Prevention procedure; assigning focal points; ensuring tethered tooling and tools at height registers are used on all sites. They have also developed a dvd/video that has been shown to all crew members and subcontractors on each vessel. This is a global tool and has been in use for the past few weeks. The members were shown the video and Allan looked for feedback. General consensus from members was that the video is a superb product and a fantastic awareness tool. DROPS have asked Technip to consider sharing their product with the broader DROPS community in the future and we await their response.
Heico Wedge Lock – Paul Windsor, Heico
Paul provided a brief history of Heico and their current product portfolio which includes wedge locks and ring locks where Paul focused his presentation. He described the functional principles of each explaining how the wedge lock washers provide a securing system that provides resistance to vibration. The ring lock washers are supplied pre-assembled where the ring locking system consists of a polyamide ring (PA) and the already familiar HEICO-LOCK wedge lock washers. Whereas the wedge lock washers secure the bolted connections reliably, the ring holds the two individual washers together in the correct position permanently. Summary details are available to download here and more detailed information can be obtained directly from Paul via email Paul.Windsor@heico-fasteners.co.uk.
Open Floor and Any Other Business
Greg thanked everyone for their participation and invited the attendees to offer any issues for further discussion in the open floor session.
Next meeting
Date: Thursday 17 September 2015
Time: 0930 -1200
Venue: Urban Village Hotel, Kingswells Business Park, Aberdeen
Host: DROPS Global Steering Committee Members