Fact Section of PSA Norway Annual Report for 2012

PSA Norway released during last April the fact section of its annual report dealing with important results from the PSA activities and brief information on personal injuries, work-related illness, leaks, fires, damage to structures and pipelines etc. No fatal accidents occurred during 2012 within the PSA area of responsibility offshore and on land. Three people have died in occupational accidents over the past 10 years, most recently in 2009. A brief summary of the most important developments for accidents and injuries in 2012 is provided in this post.

A slightly negative trend has occurred even though the number of near-misses with a major accident potential shows a clear decline. In particular, hydrocarbon leaks have been sharply reduced to six leaks greater than 0.1 kilograms per second (kg/s) in 2012. On the other hand, several incidents have occurred – especially in 2012 – with a relatively large potential for loss of life. Two hydrocarbon leaks greater than 10 kg/s were experienced in 2012, along with two serious incidents related to loss of stability and one related to structural integrity.

The number of serious personal injuries in Norway’s offshore industry declined from 26 in 2011 to 23. This meant that the serious personal injury frequency was reduced from 0.59 per million working hours to 0.5. That represents a statistically significant reduction compared with the previous 10-year period, and thereby means that the positive trend of the past few years was maintained.

The decline in 2012 related to operator personnel on production installations, where the frequency was as low as 0.19, while operator employees experienced a slight increase. For contractor personnel, who have traditionally had a higher injury frequency than operator employees, a slight rise was recorded in 2012 after a substantial decline over many years.

Following a small increase on mobile units during 2011, the serious personal injury frequency again declined in 2012. This frequency is substantially below the average for the past five years.

No incidents occurred in 2012 which led to serious environmental harm. Well incidents represent the biggest contribution to the risk of environmental harm. While their number has shown a positive trend for many years, they rose from 13 in 2011 to 16. Although the number of such incidents was higher a number of years ago, it is nevertheless desirable that they continue to decline. We are accordingly following up these incidents closely, particularly with a view to identifying underlying causes related to management and control, experience transfer, learning from similar events and safety culture.

Six hydrocarbon leaks greater than 0.1 kilograms per second (kg/s) were registered in 2012, compared with 11 the year before. Hydrocarbon leaks are divided into categories by the rate of leakage. Two of the 2012 leaks fell into the largest category – in other words, greater than 10 kg/s. The contribution to the overall major accident risk was therefore considerably higher in 2012 than in the three preceding years.

The number of ships on a collision course has declined substantially. Only eight incidents were registered in 2012, the lowest for the past 10 years. Twenty were recorded in 2011. The positive trend must be attributed primarily to the effect of controlling sea areas around installations from the traffic management centres.

One collision occurred between installations and supply ships in 2012. The number of such incidents has been reasonably stable over the past decade at two-three per year.

Incidents related to structures and maritime systems showed an increase from 11 in 2010 to 17 in 2011, of which 12 related to mobile facilities. Three of the incidents were classed as serious:

An anchor on Floatel Superior came loose and punctured the hull.
One incident on Scarabeo 8 led to unintended filling of a ballast tank so that the facility listed.
The third incident in the most serious category involved cracks in the grouting around the legs of the Yme installation.

Figures from the RNNP furthermore reveal that the industry faces challenges in managing safety-critical barriers. The failure rate for key barriers related to hydrocarbon-bearing systems lies above the expected value for the industry as a whole. Results for barrier management at installation level show that certain facilities are substantially above the expected failure rate. This could mean that certain facilities operate with an availability of certain safety-critical barriers which is lower than the level required for safe operation.

The PSA report contained also other valuable information related to the responsibilities of the organization such as