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DROPS Forum - Aberdeen, 28th April 2016

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:
ASG Inspection - UK
Safer Together – Australia (Queensland Gas Expro Safety Forum)
Bureau Veritas - Nigeria
We are also pleased to reinstate former members Shenzhen Firstrank of China.

DROPS Global Steering Committee

Our Steering Committee met on April 6th. As well as a general overview of the DROPS initiative and its direction, the Steercom addressed all issues referred by the Administration Team. The next Steercom meeting will be in August.

DROPS International

DROPS met with key North American players last month and the outcome was a commitment from several Operators (incl Shell, BP, Chevron) to work with DROPS and lead a Workgroup towards a common Wells-focused DROPS standard. 

In Canada, strong Operator demand for DROPS engagement, events and training has led to a small DROPS workshop and training events in May in Newfoundland.

A DROPS Middle East Forum was held last month in Dubai. The event had some excellent content which Allen will highlight later. Huge demand for more DROPS events and a questionnaire is being prepared to help shape the next forum to the Region’s needs. Very well attended despite a poor Operator presence.

DROPS Asia Chapter will host a Regional Forum later in the year with details/venue to follow. 
We are pleased to announce a Norwegian DROPS Forum in Stavanger on Monday August 22nd and we thank Oceaneering for kindly hosting this Forum. Invites and details will be sent out in due course but for further details and presentation requests, contact secretary@dropsonline.org
As ever, details of all upcoming international events are available at www.dropsonline.org
 
DROPS Training

Since last forum, UK DROPS Train-the-Trainer sessions were held at Silverdot’s offices and several of our members’ offices. Further UK dates will be scheduled and posted on website subject to demand.
International DROPS Train-the-Trainer was held to coincide with DROPS events in USA, Dubai, Oman, and Bahrain. Training also held in Azerbaijan.
Train-the-Trainer in St John’s, Newfoundland on Wednesday May 4th
The DROPS Train-the-Trainer programme has evolved and developed considerably over recent years into a far more comprehensive training package and resource. If it has been some time since your training was undertaken, we encourage you to consider a refresher. 
Contact training@dropsonline.org or see Training section of www.dropsonline.org for details of all scheduled training.

Next Aberdeen DROPS Forums

Our next Aberdeen DROPS Forum will be on Thursday 22nd September and thereafter on Thursday 1st December. These Aberdeen Forums will be held in the Urban Village Hotel.

DROPS Focus Groups

The Reliable Securing Focus Group will have their second meeting immediately after today’s Forum.
Focus Group Updates will follow later and, as ever, we welcome your suggestions for any “quick hit” improvements, products or communications – send details to admin@dropsonline.org.

DROPS Products

Our DROPS campaign pack updates have been issued to all members and pack subscribers. We have had very positive feedback, particularly those in more remote regions who cannot attend DROPS events but who find the electronic DROPS data most useful. Great appreciation also for the Technip movie and the all-new Rogues Gallery presentation.
Much use has already been made of our new DROPS banners which are available to all members for use at your awareness or promotional events. The banners are out on loan once more today. Users please return the banners to Silverdot’s offices after your event. All banner requests to admin@dropsonline.org

Presenters and Presentations

Greg thanked the Forum presenters and noted the topics being addressed.
If you wish to nominate or request a presentation or table-top demonstration for consideration at a future DROPS event, please contact us via secretary@dropsonline.org and please continue to share alerts and lessons learned with us via admin@dropsonline.org

Member Events

Aquaterra extended an invitation to all to attend their Safety Expo event on Thursday 19th May 2016 at their Kintore offices. Aquaterra’s Stephen Ferguson gave brief details and a flyer was circulated. For further details, email Stephen.Ferguson@theaquaterragroup.com

Dropped Objects Can Kill – Kirsty Walker, Schlumberger

Kirsty introduced the Forum to the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers and their data collection and data processing. IOGP is a global member organisation and members voluntarily report a variety of incident data including Occupational Safety; Environmental, Process Safety etc. The data gathered is secure and anonymous. It is comprehensive and global with data covering 4,719 million work hours submitted by 49 of the 57 IOGP company members in 2015. Kirsty demonstrated the various data sets and some of the methods of interrogating the statistics. The data is continuously updated and published annually (next update June).
Data can be filtered by country and region; work function, eg drilling, production, exploration; incident category, activity etc. There are a wide variety of reports available from the dataset, including Fatalities, TRIR, LTIF etc.
Data can be interrogated by standard causal factors or life saving rules.  While dropped objects fall within the “Struck By” incident category, they can be more specifically filtered using the Life Saving Rule for Dropped Objects and this shows that 5% of the global fatalities from 2006 to 2015 can be attributed to Dropped Objects.  Reporting for the period 2010 to 2015 shows the same top 5 for both fatal incidents and HiPos, where 12% of all fatalities were attributed to Work at Height. 
Kirsty’s presentation is available to download here and click here for the IOGP Safety Zone website.

Now That’s Interesting – Allen Smith, DROPS
 
We were given an enlightening presentation by Allen Smith, our DROPS Field Representative. Allen shared some key learning and points from his work around the globe. He highlighted that an understanding of DROPS is critical. We asked if gravity was our friend or enemy and considered Static vs Dynamic dropped objects. A number of photos gathered from his travels showed recurring problems and poor practice, including tools routinely left or held at height, poor storage, poor housekeeping.
Allen explained the simple risk-based approach to dropped object prevention (the wheel model), how the application of DROPS Best Practice and Guidance (including Reliable Securing), Work at Height and Lifting requirements; JSAs and Good Housekeeping can all help prevent dropped objects. The presentation is available to download here.

Static Dropped Objects – Stacey Murphy, Shell

Stacey shared the initial learnings from a recent incident where an angle iron weighing 7.75kg fell 12m, bounced off the dog house roof and struck an IP on the drill floor hitting his hard hat. It was discovered that the dog house roof had reinforced glass which prevented a potential fatality.  Further investigations across Shell’s North Sea operations showed that one rig did not have reinforced glass on the dog house roof and this is now being addressed.  Members are encouraged to check their rigs. Regarding the dropped object, findings showed galvanic corrosion and evidence of double nuts on other sections of the ducting where the angle iron fell from. The Maintenance and Inspection criteria was General Visual Inspection but it was not always possible to get clear / close sight to some inaccessible areas of the structure.  The ownership of the equipment resides with the platform ops and maintenance team which meant that inspection of this equipment in the derrick structure is not included in the drilling contractor’s checklist or picture book. A short but powerful audio clip featuring the actual individual inside the dog house brings home the potential devastation of this incident as he speaks of his initial reaction and subsequent feelings.

Lower Level Dropped Objects – Wayne Bradford, Transocean

Brad shared the learnings from recent Transocean incidents within the UK where items have fallen from lower heights. The Transocean statistics for 2015 showed 25 dropped object incidents recorded and all were classified as dynamic. Eight of these incidents were under 5m and four of those resulted in injury to personnel. These four incidents were items falling from a maximum 2m and a description of each incident was presented in detail including the height and weight of the object, and where the IP was struck.
As a result of these incidents, there was a recognition that lower level items do occur and a renewed focus was required at each site.  Several photos taken from various sites showed the prevalence of poor practice, with items simply propped up or inadequately tied up at lower levels. There appeared to be a lack of vigilance for potential dropped objects at these lower heights and little recognition of their potential to cause damage or injury. Brad emphasised that anything that is secured and stored at any height should be properly maintained, inspected and used appropriately.
It was also reiterated that when using the DROPS Calculator, a person’s height should not be deducted from object’s fall height. Brad’s presentation is available to download here.

Dubai Forum Highlights – Allen Smith, DROPS

Allen gave a brief overview of the highlights and main learnings from last month’s Dubai forum. The Forum featured a presentation from Parker Drilling that showed Dropped Objects to be their main cause of HiPos and identified an understanding of the hazard to be key to establishing the controls to be put in place to prevent such incidents. OES then shared common inspection findings and highlighted the top 5 recurring incidents from the 175 surveys they have undertaken in the past 10 years. A DROPS Implementation Study by Tesco was shared, explaining how their internal specialised team pulled together and put into place a programme to prevent dropped objects. The Forum’s closing presentation was from Seadrill who shared their lessons learned and current dropped object prevention initiatives. A highlight of this presentation was the feedback gathered from the site teams which helped develop and improve the Seadrill campaign.
Members were encouraged to view the minutes and presentations from the Dubai forum here.

Focus Groups

The Reliable Securing Focus Group meet after today’s forum for the second time. Owners have been established for individual sections of the guidance and their findings and initial information gathering will be reviewed today. The goal is to complete the update by December 2016 and new books to be published in January 2017.   
Fallout from this Focus Group is that our current Best Practice documents will also be updated and all members will have the opportunity to recommend, review and challenge these updates.  All decision making will be by consensus. If you have any suggestion or comment, please email admin@dropsonline.org.
The DORIS Focus Group will be established this summer. Those who are wishing to participate in the DORIS Focus Group must register interest with secretary@dropsonline.org.

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.
It was noted that for Manriding, StepChange has new guidance available that may be useful in the Reliable Securing update. 
A member raised the issue of how we control service providers and third party equipment to ensure appropriate secondary retention/ownership/inspection?  General discussion highlighted that this is briefly addressed in DROPS Best Practice guidance but the topic may be worthy of a Focus Group in the future.

Next meetings

Date:     Monday 22 August 2016
Time:    1000 - 1230
Venue:  Oceaneering, Stavanger, Norway
Host:     Oceaneering

Date:    Thursday 22 Sept 2016
Time:     0930 -1200
Venue:  Urban Village Hotel, Aberdeen, UK
Host:     DROPS Global Steering Committee Members