BackDROPS Forum - Perth WA, 3rd November 2011
Over 90 industry professionals attended the inaugural Australia forum organized by DROPS Asia and a local workgroup consisting of representatives from Shell, Woodside, Santos, Baker Hughes, Halliburton, Transocean, Maersk, Atwood Oceanics and ModuSpec.
The forum, which was generously sponsored by Shell Australia, was held at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Perth. Attendance was mainly a mix of operators, drilling contractors, service companies and equipment suppliers from the offshore industry. There were also several representatives from land based operations and we hope that we can focus on that segment more in a next forum.
The forum was moderated by Lance Costello, Shell Australia Contractor HSE Management Lead. Lance was also the chairperson for this forum’s workgroup.
Forum Opening - Michael Collins, Well Delivery Manager Shell Australia
The forum was opened by Michael Collins. Michael thanked the audience for attending and shared why DROPS is important to Shell. Dropped Objects are always in the top of high potential incidents across the Shell exploration activities. Because of a focused campaign on dropped objects, incidents have come down, but there are still plenty of incidents where someone could have gotten seriously hurt.
Introduction to DROPS Asia – Joachim van der Meulen, Secretary DROPS Asia
A lot of the attendees are working on dropped objects prevention matters in their jobs, but many where not familiar with DROPS. Joachim explained what DROPS does and shared what sort of activities the Asia Chapter has been involved in since its establishment 2 years ago. Most member companies have come a significant way in their Dropped Object prevention programmes. The initial focus was on static dropped objects such as lightings which fell due to corrosion and vibration. With regular inspections and secondary retention, these incidents have significantly reduced. Now there is a more focus on dynamics, which are things that are temporarily at height, such as lifting activities and tooling. Red Zones/No Go Zones, tools at height, inspections before lifting and various other initiatives are eliminating incidents in this category. Many of the dropped objects that occur these days, are related to behavioural issues, so that will be an important focus going forward.
For details on DROPS Asia, please email secretary@dropsasia.com
Follow this link to download the presentation.
Dropped Objects: The Regulators Perspective – Damien Cronin, NOPSA Investigation Manager
NOPSA is the Australia regulatory body for all offshore exploration activities. NOPSA is involved in Safety Cases Assessments, Facility Inspections, Incident Investigations and enforcement. In the past 21 months NOPSA has received 44 notifications of dropped objects (out of 365 incidents). 6 of these incidents actually caused harm to personnel and 27 had the potential to cause serious harm or death. Out of the 210 assets that NOPSA monitors, 15 are drilling rigs, but these account for 64% of all reported incidents.
Damien also covered several incidents which can be reviewed in his presentation. Follow this link to download the presentation.
Automation: Is this the new hazard? – Lance Costello, Shell Australia Contractor HSE Management Lead.
Lance presented an incident that involved a dropped drill pipe from tubular feed machine which occurred recently on board a geotechnical vessel leased by Shell. The details of the incident cannot be published online at the moment as not all investigations have been closed out, but the following lessons can be taken out:
- Automation can introduce new potentials hazards
- Do your people know the requirements of your PTW system?
- Do you have a robust MoC system that is understood and followed?
- Do you have an effective maintenance trending and analysis programme?
- Do you conduct formal risk assessments for changes to your work systems?
Tubular Handling Animated Video – Steve Allerton, Go Home Safe
Steve briefly covered the history of animations and how it has been used as a method of instruction and tool for behavioural change. Go Home Safe have produced a range of safety related animated, language free videos which cover the subject of dropped object prevention. Most of the videos cover specific drilling rig related safety challenges. Videos consist of 3 stages 1: What could happen if a job is not done safely, 2: Instructions on how to do it properly and 3: Example how it is done safely. The latest Tubular Handling video covers some of the risk involved in tubular handling and proposes methods for doing this job safely.
Further details are available from Go-Home Safe directly.
Please visit the Go Home Safe website.
Dropped Objects as seen from an HSE Managers desk - Michael Chapman, QHSE Manager Maersk
Dropped Object incidents have come down significantly throughout Maersk drilling operations, but bringing the number further down to Zero remains a huge challenge. 2 out of 10 dropped objects are caused fixed, or what DROPS calls static. The other 8 are man handled or what DROPS calls Dynamic.
Dropped object prevention initially focused on hardware installed on the rig, these initiatives dramatically reduced static dropped objects. The focus then shifted to systems to control the dynamics such as lifting incidents and tools. Now, the remaining incidents are mostly due to human factors. Michael gave an example of an incident that was caused by using a wooden pallet without pallet lifting appliance to lift 2 100KG metal objects. It was obviously a wrong method of lifting, but why the persons involved, who were formally qualified in rigging and slinging, made this mistake.
Maersk have taken various initiatives to address the human behavioural sided of dropped objects:
- KPI for rig management
- Award system including DO’s and 3rd party personnel
- Leadership training at higher level
- Safety Leadership training with a behaviour approach
- Compliance training and verifying what has been done to comply with existing requirements
- Introducing just culture in parts of our organization and making the individual take responsibility
- Process based SMS
Follow this link to download the presentation.
Drops onshore in PNG: Are we managing them – Kevin Rollins, HSE Manager High Arctic
DROPS have always had a strong focus on offshore drilling activities, but not surprisingly, dropped objects also happen on land. So just like on offshore rigs, High Arctic Energy conducts regular inspections and surveys on their rigs.
Dedicated tethered tools are used for all work at height. After a year of trial and error with tools disappearing and being poorly maintained, the tool kits were moved to the safety office and put under a permit to work system. Kevin shared that 8 drops out of 38 related to OEM equipment which could have been better designed and called on the manufacturers to consider this in their designs.
There are a lot of land drilling operations in Australia, so perhaps a next DROPS forum should focus more on that.
Follow this link to download the presentation.
ModuSpec Snapshot on Dropped Objects - Eric Adlard, General Manager ModuSpec Australia
ModuSpec inspects over 500 drilling rigs around the world a year. Many of these inspections contain a DROPS element. Based on interviews with our Surveyors and a review of inspection reports, the following are the most frequent reoccurring issues:
- Corrosion
- Safety slings not installed or installed incorrectly
- Redundant brackets/clamps/cables/junk
- Missing/loose bolts
- Wrong type of shackles (2 part) or shackles not fitted with safety pins
- Missing toe boards or none installed
- Self locking/Secondary retention nuts not used
- Escape device not properly installed
Eric went over a range of photos taken throughout various surveys. These can be viewed by downloading the presentation here.
Role of Service Company – Leong Weng Fei, Regional HSE Director Baker Hughes
It is often discussed during DROPS forums that we need to include the whole supply chain to be able to fully eliminate all dropped object incidents. Leong shared what Baker Hughes, a major service company to our industry, is doing. A campaign on DROPS was launched to increase awareness on the risks posed by dropped objects and general preventive strategies were shared with all Baker Hughes employees in China. Employees were then encouraged to go out and take photos of potential dropped object items in their workplace and suggest improvement opportunities. This was done as a competition and many responses were received. The responses were made into a presentation which was then shared with all employees in all locations. The campaign and competition helped to change the perspective employees have on dropped object risks in the workplace and certainly went a long way in helping to spread the DROPS message even in an onshore environment.
Follow this link to download the presentation.
Red Zones & No Go Zones - Sarah Molyneux, Snr Drilling Engineer Shell
Various initiatives are having a significant impact in reducing dropped object incidents, but no rig can claim to have reduced the risk to zero while still working. By using red zones and no-go zones, the chance of someone getting hurt by a falling object, is significantly reduced.
To raise awareness for red zones and no-go zones, Shell is using animated awareness videos produced by Go Home Safe. The videos are very effective in explaining the risk of dropped objects and address how red zones and no-go zones can help to reduce the risk of harm to personnel. The presentation also included several examples of dropped object incidents throughout Shell operations.
Follow this link to download the presentation.
Closing Comments – Lance Costello, Shell Australia Contractor HSE Management Lead
Lance thanked all guest speakers and re-enforced the salient points from each of the Forum speakers. Lance reminded the audience that the success of the DROPS Forum in Australia is dependent on future sponsorship and support from the industry. “If you would like to sponsor/support a future event please talk to myself or member of the DROPS Asia steering committee”. The intention going forward is to hold the next DROPS Forum on the east coast, [Post meeting note - possibly in Brisbane with a focus on the Coal Seam Gas industry]. Lance closed the meeting by thanking all for attending.
For details on DROPS Asia, please email secretary@dropsasia.com