Get Involved

DROPS Forum - Aberdeen, Thursday 22nd September 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:
OGI Maintenance & Inspection - Brazil
Sky Futures – UK
System 2000 Group – UK
Gulf Energy International – Saudi Arabia
IOIC Oilfield Inspection – Egypt
Kembl Petroleum Technology Co – China
DBC Group – Australia
SNC Lavalin Industrial Atlantic – Canada
Allrig Group – Dubai
Statoil – Norway

We are disappointed that membership has lapsed since last Forum for the following former members:
Swift Drilling - Netherlands
Global Energy Group – UK
Inquest Services – USA
Capital Safety - UK
Core IRM – Singapore
CAN - Norway

Subscription requests for annual membership renewals were sent on August 1st. To date, just under half have been fulfilled. Could members please expedite outstanding renewals.

DROPS Global Steering Committee

Our Steering Committee met on August 29th. As well as their general overview of DROPS and its direction, the Steercom addressed all issues referred by the Admin Team. The next Steercom meeting will be in November.

DROPS International

DROPS North America Chapter is now firmly re-established with an Operator-led Steering Committee and regular meetings. Their work is already well advanced on a common standard reference document for DROPS. A North America DROPS forum is being held on Thursday November 10th in Houston. Entry is by ticket only. For registration and further details, see the Events section at www.dropsonline.org 
We await details from DROPS Asia Chapter on the date and venue of their annual Forum.
The Norwegian DROPS Forum was held in Stavanger a few weeks ago. Special thanks to Oceaneering for their hospitality and kind hosting of this Forum. 
Details of all upcoming international events are available at www.dropsonline.org

Next Aberdeen DROPS Forum

Our next Aberdeen DROPS Forum will be on Thursday 1st December at the Village Hotel. An extended schedule will accommodate festive lunch for attendees. Forum dates for 2017 will be set at this event.

DROPS Training

Since last forum, UK DROPS Train-the-Trainer sessions have been held at Silverdot’s offices and further UK dates are scheduled and posted on website, including next session on October 18th.  Training has also been held in Canada, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan and Italy.
In response to demand after this year’s Middle East Forum, Train-the-Trainer is being held in Bahrain on October 20th.
Train-the-Trainer will be held in Houston in November with date and venue to be announced soon.
Train-the-Trainer will be held in Asia to coincide with the DROPS Asia Forum (details to follow).
See Training section of www.dropsonline.org for details of all scheduled training or contact training@dropsonline.org for further information.

DROPS Networking and Marketing

DROPS will present and sit on the Q&A panel at the Liftex 2016 Conference at Aberdeen AECC on November 23rd/24th.
Continued dialogue with SfS, Norway sharing our details of Reliable Securing update and their details of potential new NORSOK standard around dropped object prevention.
Greater interaction and meetings with IADC. Regional Director attended DROPS Train-the-Trainer.
Exploring shared interests with Road Hauliers / Offshore Wind Energy sector - similar challenges.
DROPS marketing materials very well used by members. Banners, Snakes & Ladders props, Literature etc.  All requests to admin@dropsonline.com

DROPS Products

DROPS website updated to improve representation for International Chapters and to allow PayPal functionality for event ticketing and sales.
With thanks to Archer, a Norwegian translation of the Rogues’ Gallery is being prepared and will be issued to all members in the campaign pack updates.

DROPS Focus Groups

Reliable Securing Focus Group have third meeting later today.
Focus Group Updates follow later and, as ever, we welcome your suggestions for any “quick hit” improvements, products or communications – send details to admin@dropsonline.org.

Presenters and Presentations

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

Split Pins – Applications and Alternatives – Lukasz Szadkowski, NOV

Lukasz opened his presentation with a brief overview of dropped object statistics within NOV since 2012. The trend is steeply upward with the number of reported incidents almost doubled.  Some discussion around this trend considered better reporting as a major contributor but greater analysis and investigation is clearly required. The main focus of Lukasz’s presentation was on applications and alternatives for split pins. Various examples were shown and discussed. NOV are working on potential redesigns and offered their latest “cotter ring” concept for consideration. NOV demonstrated the design, safety, and ease of retrofit.  Discussions ensued around various pros and cons and Lukasz welcomed the feedback for his engineering team. Ball lock pins were also reviewed and discussed. Issues around durability, contamination and integrity were dominant.  NOV welcome further feedback (to Lukasz.Szadkowski@nov.com) and Lukasz’s presentation is available to download here.

Site Cranes Dropped Object Prevention – Lenny West, Repsol Sinopec

Lenny summarised the Repsol Sinopec statistics for Actual and Potential dropped objects from 2009 to 2016, before focusing on examples of actual incidents. A powerful awareness video was included highlighting specific winter hazards and representation of a serious incident where high winds resulted in scaffold boards being blown away and landing on the rig floor outside the galley. Lenny’s focus then turned to site cranes and he presented a series of examples of potential and actual dropped objects from cranes. He discussed causal factors, actions to be taken and preventive and mitigating options, including greater awareness, better inspection procedures and site checklists. We are working with Repsol Sinopec to explore the possibility of sharing the winter hazard awareness video with members. With this exception, Lenny’s presentation is available to download here.

Marine Update – Stewart McIntosh, Gulfmark

Stewart opened with a summary of marine sector dropped object incident statistics from 2006 to date. He explained that whilst the 2016 number is down, the frequency has actually doubled from 2015 (allowing for the reduced activity).  Numerous examples of dropped objects were shown and Stewart highlighted huge concerns with failures to check backloaded cargo from rig to vessel… 81% of their dropped object incidents. Common causes appear to be that checks fail, possibly becausee they were done several hours prior to the actual lift or they were not stringent enough. Ownership and learnings are essential to stop these kinds of incidents from occurring and the marine sector welcome support. Corrective actions need to be carried out by everyone in the chain and several questions were raised by the marine sector:
Is cargo being lifted to vessels given the same level of scrutiny as lifts across your assets?
Are those doing the checks fully aware of the potential of these items?
Are they given sufficient time to conduct the checks?
When you experience these incidents or near misses, is your follow up robust enough to prevent recurrence?
Stewart’s presentation is available to download here.

Swire Dropped Object Management System – Michael King, Swire

Michael opened with a brief corporate overview of Swire before focusing on the company’s potential exposure to dropped objects and what they are doing to manage this. Through their Operational Excellence Programme, they define and apply technical standards, specific working practices, training and competence assurance. Michael’s presentation gave a summary of each of these key facets. He concluded that “we are all human” and showed examples of incidents that have occurred – but the management system is helping reduce the exposure to and frequency of dropped objects. Michael’s presentation is available to download here.

A World of Opportunities – Allen Smith, DROPS

From his travels in support of DROPS, Allen gave an insight on his learnings and discussed many of the opportunities we have to improve. Through DROPS, members have access to Training, Site Visits and Specific Awareness, Management System Gap Analysis, System Development and, above all, the opportunity to share best practice and lessons learned. He commonly found an over-reliance on third party services, poor understanding of causal factors and hazard identification and misinterpretation of terms and definitions – all issues that we have the opportunity and knowledge to address. He explored each of these areas providing examples of relevant shared learnings.  Allen concluded with a brief update on the North American Chapter’s remit and Focus Group updates for Reliable Securing (Revision 4) and DORIS – our statistical database. Allen’s presentation is available to download here.

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 1 December 2016
Time:     0930 - 1200 followed by Xmas Lunch
Venue:  Urban Village Hotel, Aberdeen
Host:     DROPS Global Steering Committee Members