How To Improve Safety On The Offshore Installations
How To Improve Safety On The Offshore Installations
How To Improve Safety On The Offshore Installations
DOI: 10.12716/1001.13.02.04
ABSTRACT: Reviving is noticeable in the field of oil and gas production located under the seabed. The off‐
shore projects are being implemented. Due to this, the risk of accidents at each stage of production should be
considered continually. The offshore market, both oil and gas as well as renewable energy, is estimated to
increase steadily in the coming years. Therefore, the operations on the production oil field must be suitably
protected at every stage of performing work. The paper describes how important Job Safety Analyses are for
proper operations. The main aim of the article is to indicate steps and the best way of performing JSA on board
of the offshore installation to reduce the risk of emergency. The selected disasters and major accidents indicate
that the conducted activity is exposed to the risk of hazards to the natural environment and to people at every
stage of the reservoir exploitation. The authors use the analysis of available international reports, the experience
gained while working on different types of the offshore vessels and installations as well as in the Polish
offshore company.
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maritime areas. The operator must show a number of during intense rain as well as strong winds. This
documents that must be submitted to the competent causes a number of major accidents which occurred in
supervisory authority in connection with the activities the oil fields or was connected with offshore activities.
carried out.
The total number of fixed and floating installation
In addition, the offshore company must establish a is 586.
safety and environmental management system that is
incorporated into the overall management system. It The vast majority of offshore installations in EU
should be noted that in addition to the requirements waters are located in the North Sea. In the
of the directives, the entity must comply with a Mediterranean Sea, Italy is the most active Member
number of international and local standards, related Stat followed by Croatia. In the Black Sea, Romania
to the exploration and production of energy resources and Bulgaria has an offshore oil and gas industry. In
located under the seabed. the Baltic Sea only Poland produces oil and gas [7].
Moreover, improving safety while conducting In 2016 there were conducted 735 inspections on
work should be considered in a broader sense, which the installations. The inspections covered all
can also be understood as a maritime safety culture. departments of the installation. There were checked
381 installations. In the Baltic Sea there were four
This means transferring more knowledge and inspections and all installations were checked. During
understanding to the matters related to ensuring the the inspections, indicated that the works were not
safe operations of ships and all activities related to the carried out in according to the procedures. Moreover,
safe exploitation of the sea resources [4]. Ensuring discovered that works were not well‐ planned and
safety as well as its improving should be considered documents were not filled correct. The inspections
in terms of an individual, that is, every installation also showed that the crew did not stick to the
employee as well as supervisors and end with the completed documents, including Job Safety Analysis
managers of the installations, owner sand control and and Permit To Work, as integrated. As a result, they
supervisory bodies. can lead to accidents, as evidenced by the statistics
presented above.
The accidents that took place in the marine
exploitation fields indicate that they cannot be According to Annual EU report 59,5 % of all
eliminated, but all measures should be taken to limit accidents were category of unintended realize – 59,5
them to a maximum. The events are often a sequence % of the total, 26,2 % connected the loss of well
of unfavourable events that progress slowly, often in control (blowout/diverted activation), 7,1% failures of
the long‐term, or occur suddenly without preceding safety and environmental critical elements and 4,8
warning signals. Therefore, the introduction of loss of structural integrity. One incident required the
appropriate safety tools in the phase of planning work evacuation of personnel [8]. According to Summary
and then ensuring proper monitoring of work is report if European Comparison published 31 October
fundamental to reducing the risk of a dangerous 2018 from last ten years the rate of fatal injury at has
event. been decreasing. In Poland according to the annual
assessments report of health and safety issued by
The paper was based primarily on the experience Polish Mining Authorities, in 2018 there were 35
of the authors gained while working on specialized accidents at work, there were no fatalities. It is 1,3%
offshore ships, work on the installation and in the all accidents at work in mining industry (including
ship ownersʹ office, as well as on various legal activates on shore and at sea) [1].
regulations, such as: International Safety Management
Code, Directive 2013/30 / EU, local legal regulations,
including classifiers, such as: Lloyds List Intelligence,
European Union Commission reports, Health and 3 PROVISIONS OF THE OFFSHORE DIRECTIVE
Safety Executive UK.
The aim of the article is to indicate safety solutions The following chapter presents the guidelines of the
during routine activities as well as work performed Directive 2013/30 / EU, which, as already mentioned,
on the basis of written licences, and to discuss the was developed to reduce the risk of major accidents
proper implementation of the Job Safety Analysis associated with oil and gas exploitation. Therefore, it
(JSA). The paper shows fundamental is proper requires identification and management of serious
planning, implementation and supervision of both threats, as well as the introduction of effective
daily and high‐risk activities in implementing reaction strategies in the event of their occurrence
international postulates in relation to improving from the owners and operators conducting operations
safety in the offshore industry. related to oil and natural gas exploitation. The
specificity of the conducted activities indicates that
they are subject to the risk of a hazard occurrence.
Therefore, at every stage of the operations it is
2 ANALYSIS OF ACCIDENTS IN THE OFFSHORE necessary to maintain the safety rules and keep them
INDUSTRY at the optimal and acceptable level throughout the
entire operation. Ensuring the level of safety is the
Work in the offshore industry is considered as one of result of the synthesis of elements which interact with
the most dangerous because of constant threat due to each other. These include, among others, external
the type of operation carried out and the impact of the factors, technical factors, operational factors, personal
natural environment on work. Activities must be factors, as well as a number of factors which have
carried out throughout the year, both at high direct and indirect impact on exploitation, but also
temperatures and extremely low temperatures, support or disrupt the exploitation process.
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The abundance of provisions in the Directive It is obvious that the whole crew has an impact on
ensures that first of all every person who conducts the safe operation of the unit. It should be
offshore operations will implement uniform emphasized that the work of the crew is burdened
regulations which are imposed on all operators of with the constant risk of a dangerous event. In
offshore installations and also will take appropriate addition, rest takes place constantly in the same place
measures to prevent major accidents, i.e. to provide where the installation`s crew work, it is often loud,
complete supervision and responsibility even if it is uncomfortable and exposed to unpredictable
done by another operator [5]. situations threatening health and even life. As a
result, decision making can be limited or slowed
Therefore, each company has developed and down. Proper management of operations as a
implemented measures necessary to ensure safe protection against a series of adverse events requires
working conditions, rules for controlling the risk of the implementation of procedures defined in the
occurrence of dangerous events and accidents in implemented system.
terms of minimizing the occurrence of risk,
elimination of its consequences as well as general and Therefore, the Safety Management System on
environmental safety. They have been identified in board, despite its specific framework and conditions
the functioning systems with safety and included in the procedures, should support the
environmental management as well as with other possibility of taking appropriate actions. The
occupational health and safety management systems developed procedures do not exclude 100% of human
and quality management systems. Each enterprise error or device failure. There are another safety
related to oil and gas operations in maritime areas measure, which primarily causes an increase in
must have appropriate certificates to meet specific awareness of hazards during operations, and thus
requirements. improvement of work safety, such as risk
assessments, analysis of risk assessments, control of
whole work process, safety meetings and close up
review of work steps.
4 SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
As already mentioned, the company must establish a 5 THE RULES OF SAFE OPERATIONS ON
safety and environmental management system that INSTALLATIONS
becomes an integral part of the management system
functioning in the enterprise and a part of the Performing operations on installations is carried out
corporate policy related to the control of minimizing in accordance with specific requirements based on
the risk related to the activities. maritime and mining regulations, defined, among
others, by the International Association of Drilling
A tool that implements, verifies and improves the Contractors, the Society of Petroleum Engineers and,
safe operation of installations can be established by first of all, by ʺGood Drilling Practiceʺ. Service as well
the above‐mentioned regulations such as the ISM as maintenance and inspections of individual
Code, environmental standards, safety regulations, components are also carried out in accordance with
classifier regulations and Flag State in accordance documented procedures and inspection based on the
with the provisions of point 1.4 of the ISM Code, a Preventive Maintenance System (PM System).
Safety Management System must be developed ‐ SMS,
which obliges the owner of the installation and the This part of the study will cover the stages of safe
operator as the entity responsible for the safety of the execution of non‐routine operations which may result
units to establish and implement SMS on the units in emergencies. Figure 1 presents a set of formal
and in the office [3]. requirements necessary to perform operations. These
operations must be performed on the basis of a
In the case of offshore installations, this applies to written Permit To Work (PTW). A work permit is a
Mobile Offshore Drilling Units or fixed installations if document issued by the person supervising the work
the Flag deems it appropriate, as is the case with every time it is needed. Examples of operations are as
platforms in the Baltic Sea under the Polish flag. follows:
It is a system that contains a set of procedures, work on hydrocarbon transmission systems,
instructions and guidelines defined for a given hot work,
installation, taking into consideration its activities. In pressure system checking,
accordance with the provisions of the ISM Code, a work at heights,
regulation must be developed and implemented in outboard operations,
the field of procedures and operations on board, both cargo transfer operations with a crane,
routine / daily, which do not require the issuance of operations in enclosed spaces,
appropriate permit to work, as well as those for which electrical operations (electrical isolation),
issuing the required permit to work is necessary to underwater operations performed with the
perform a given operation . participation of a diver.
The regulation of operations rules is aimed at The document is divided into several parts,
increasing the level of safety during the execution of a containing, among others, a description of the
given task on the installation, both for people operations, identification of potential hazards,
performing it, as well as for the environment and applied protection measures, comments and
property. signatures of all participants of the operations. Due to
the fact that there is a risk of accident or dangerous
situation, the so‐called Job Safety Analysis (JSA) is an
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integral part of such a document (before a work The JSA organizer manages all the tasks related to
permit is issued). JSA is a tool used for systematic the JSA implementation. He is responsible for
assessment of hazards before the commencement of a collecting all necessary data and specific conditions
given operation and determination of activities for safe work performance, identifying people
eliminating or limiting identified hazards for involved in the JSA development, calling a meeting
individual stages, both during the preparation and and making appropriate entries.
execution of a given operation. The JSA set should be
specified for all operations performed on the
installation and the generic JSA should be completed
in case of the lack of information.
Figure 1. Presents a set of formal requirements necessary to
perform operations.
A part of the work permit is also the Tool Box Talk
carried out by the supervisors. It aims to discuss how
to perform a given job, to indicate hazards and
mechanisms that reduce the risk of an accident during
work, assignment of operations and other safety
issues during the operations. This conversation takes
place before the commencement of operations and the
checklist is attached to the work permit.
6 ANALYSIS OF THE VALIDITY OF THE JSA
DEVELOPMENT
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while maintaining the principle of risk reduction
to a possibly lower level at an acceptable level,
identification of personal protective equipment
(PPE) required during the operation and
determination of other solutions reducing the risk
and securing work,
preparation of JSA
submission of JSA for approval by the manager, or
a designated person in the area where the
operations will be performed.
The following issues are considered when
developing a JSA:
1 Have operations and hazards associated with
them, as well as the method of performing
operations been recorded in the appropriate
procedures and / or instructions or does the
implementation require a derogation from the
established rules?
2 Are there any derogations in the planned work in
relation to the established procedures?
3 Have all hazards and risks related to work been
included in the work permit?
4 Are all risk factors determined and controlled by
the Work Permit?
5 Have there been accidents / potentially accidental
events, failures in this type of work?
6 Is the work considered to be a complex job, with
an increased risk, or will be performed by many Figure 3. Weak points of planning works.
subcontractors?
7 Do employees have adequate experience in It may also turn out that the permit was issued but
performing the planned work? the supervisor did not check the place of work which
8 Are new devices or work methods, which have not was not properly prepared. Other issues include:
been recorded in the appropriate procedures and / Failure to follow procedures and arrangements,
or instructions, used for operations? Lack of established communication routes,
safeguards and PPE,
Lack of the work leader ‐ a person who knows the
job, as well as a lack of knowledge of the machine
7 CONDITIONS FOR SAFE OPERATIONS. AREAS operation / performing the work ‐ performing
OF SPECIAL SENSITIVITY (WEAK POINTS) work by operators with insufficient experience,
WHEN PLANNING WORK – DISCUSSION Failure to follow the manufacturerʹs instructions
and good practice
During a well‐planned and prepared action, the risk Not informing other departments / people about
of an accident is reduced to an acceptable level. conducting operations, interruption at work or
However, to maintain this level throughout the entire completion of work,
working time, it is necessary to follow the established The person supervising the operations supervises
rules. In case of derogations, various types of several operations, e.g. operations in two tanks
hazardous situations and accidents may occur. They controlled by one supervisor. Another example is
may be caused by errors made at the early stage of hot work without the proper location of fire
work planning, including the development of JSA and protective equipment and without the person
the issuing of work permits. Figure 3 presents weak supervising the work or switching off the detectors
points (areas of special sensitivity) which appear at in the place of work.
the planning stage of operations. Work permit not included,
Overload of operations,
If the operations start with errors or weak points A new crew member joined the operations without
occur, the work stage is exposed to the risk of an getting acquainted with JSA and specificity of
accident and the occurrence of further weaknesses operations, e.g. reloading. If he wants to join in the
that may lead to a sequence of adverse events, and operations, he is obliged to contact the supervisor,
thus the accident. understand the scope of work, approve the
In the next stage, which is the implementation of requirements and regulations with signature and
operations, the biggest mistake can be a lack of or then proceed to work.
incomplete JSA. Work permits may also not be issued
or be incomplete. As a result, the commencement of
operations takes place without proper regulations and 7.1 Improving the effectiveness of JSA
preparation of the job sites, for example: bunkering
The solutions introduced are intended to eliminate
the fuel without the preparation of the place and
irregularities and errors at an early stage of work.
without approval of the permit, and the crew explains
However, the solutions that have already been
that everything will be arranged soon, that they know
implemented are not always correct. The analyses and
what to do.
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inspection of the applied solutions should be carried perform, lack of proper supervision and
out in order to improve the quality of work, identify communication during operations.
weak points, eliminate recurring errors and thus
improve safety. One of the ways to achieve this is to The conducted surveys indicate the functioning of
conduct training sessions in the form of an open the documentation during the performance of
discussion aimed at exchanging views, applied operations, however, it is not fully sufficient. Such a
practices and experiences among installation short survey shows that safety issues are functioning,
operators as well as specialists from various but they require continuous improvement. The
industries or experts. During such discussions authors of the article will continue the analysis of
everyone has the right to express themselves, and safety on sea units in their further research.
indeed it is welcome if they get involved in the
debate, because it is related to a very important issue,
namely the increase in the awareness of the working
8 CONCLUSIONS
environment and the risks that may occur in it.
Owing to the awareness of hazards, employees are The implementation of the above elements of
indirectly forced to make comments and inform about maintaining the level of safety on the ship, as well as
irregularities. In accordance with the provisions of increasing its level, is established by the manager and
Directive 2013/30 / EU such approach to work must be must be strictly observed by the shipʹs crew members.
appreciated and rewarded. The company must Failure to meet the formal requirements may cause an
develop a motivational system for employees to accident and result in the lack of possibility to recreate
detect irregularities, minimize the risk of accidents the sequence of events that led to it. The functioning
and reward them for such attitudes. The implemented safety management system is primarily used to
systems may include various solutions, which identify such activities early enough to take necessary
include: electronic safety and health at work portals, actions or to avoid their occurrence.
where each employee can individually report
dangerous situations, periodic employee evaluations, Despite the use of work permits for many years,
as well as incentive systems, with specified prize the occurrence of dangerous events or potentially
amounts [2]. dangerous events has been observed in drilling. In
order to increase work safety, additional analyses of
Another important factor in improving the quality the safety level of individual operations have been
of JSA is the analysis as to whether the work has carried out, by ʺbreakingʺ individual operations into
already been carried out and whether there has been sequences and presenting the correct methods of their
an accident while performing the operations. If so, the execution, and presenting the hazards occurring
accident report must be discussed in detail and the while performing these operations.
report results must be considered. An accident does
not have to concern a given installation / area on
which the work is planned, but it could have taken
place somewhere else. REFERENCES
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