Last Friday the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) responded to a report of an emergency disconnect and production shut-in onboard the Helix Producer 1 located approximately 100 miles southwest of Houma, La.
The Probability of an Offshore Accident
August 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Risk is the product of frequency and consequence. Accordingly, high consequence events which occur infrequently may contribute as much risk as frequent events which have smaller consequences. Estimating the frequency with which events occur is as important to overall risk as accurately predicting the consequences. One way of estimating frequency is to look at historical records. The information presented below are an abstract from the “Safety of offshore oil & gas Impact Assessment Annex I” working paper from the European Commission, published in 2011 to accompany the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament on safety of offshore oil and gas prospection, exploration and production activities.
Potential Costs of an Offshore Accident
July 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The negative impacts of an accident are hard to quantify precisely, they will of course depend on the type, the scale, the time and the location of the event. In the case of an oil spill, its duration and the type of the oil will also have a major impact. The costs of an offshore accident will include costs to the operator (damage to the installation, lost oil, containment, cleanup, litigation etc.) and third-party costs to victims, to natural resources, the government and the affected individuals/businesses (including lost income). The information presented below are an abstract from the “Safety of offshore oil & gas Impact Assessment Annex I” working paper from the European Commission, published in 2011 to accompany the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament on safety of offshore oil and gas prospection, exploration and production activities.
Fact Section of PSA Norway Annual Report for 2012
July 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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.
Fatal Injuries in Offshore Oil and Gas Operations US 2003–2010
July 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
During 2003–2010, the U.S. oil and gas extraction industry (onshore and offshore, combined) had a collective fatality rate seven times higher than for all U.S. workers (27.1 versus 3.8 deaths per 100,000 workers). The 11 lives lost in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion provide a reminder of the hazards involved in offshore drilling. To identify risk factors to offshore oil and gas extraction workers, US CDC analyzed data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), a comprehensive database of fatal work injuries, for the period 2003–2010. The following findings of US CDC report describe the results of that analysis, which found that 128 fatalities in activities related to offshore oil and gas operations occurred during this period. Transportation events were the leading cause (65 [51%]); the majority of these involved aircraft (49 [75%]). Nearly one fourth (31 [24%]) of the fatalities occurred among workers whose occupations were classified as “transportation and material moving”.
Safety Factors of Offshore Drilling Accidents
June 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The following article, written by Dr. Marios Patsoules, focuses on technical issues surrounding errors that may cause a major offshore accident such as the Deepwater Horizon and concludes that the “Human Factor” is one of the most important factors to be taken into consideration. This article is part of a series of articles discussing the infrastructures that are required in order to minimize accidents on offshore platforms.
EU Approach on Safety of Offshore Platforms
June 12, 2013 by 1 Comment
Prevailing trends in the European oil industry, especially in the field of search, detection and extraction of hydrocarbon deposits (Upstream), show an increase of these activities in the coming years. The most – technological, institutional, business – advanced European North, has begun to decline after forty years of production and prepares … not just to pass the “baton” to the south, but to bring it themselves…
Officer of the Watch 