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DROPS FORUM - Aberdeen, 2nd July 2009

Present:
Cameron Laing, ADC; Stephen Crabb, Baker Hughes; Bill Anderson, BJ Services; Neil Marr, BP; Derek Birse, Britannia; Bob Thompson, Chevron; Alan Moore, Chevron; Craig Stear, DSL; Donald Dobson, HSE; Alan Johnson, Maersk; Gavin Sutherland, KCA Deutag; Richard Waddington, Nordlock; Jim Smith, Scotgrip; Keith Little, Servtech; Debbie Mecklenburgh, Shell; Stacey Murphy, Shell; Norman Marwick, StepChange; Dave White, StopDrop; Ronnie Watt, Total; Christoffer Strom, Transocean; Neil Birnie, Vetco; Darren Low, Vetco; D Murray, Weatherford; Les Symmons, Total; Jason Cross, Seawell; Alistair Tong, ADC; Kenny Leggat, Transocean; Gotsa Rydin, NordLock; Vetli Tveiten, StatoilHydro; Sharon Hobart, KCA Deutag; Keith Gaskin, Titan; Brian Ross, Aker MH; Robin Barr, BP; Graham Souter, NordLock; Bob Jamieson, Peterson SBS; Lenny West, Talisman; Dave Richardson, NOV.

Greg Reid of Silverdot opened the Forum. Around the room introductions were given and many new attendees were welcome, followed by a safety brief.

DROPS Update – Greg Reid, Silverdot
MEMBERSHIP: 
• Delighted to welcome following new DROPS members: Nordlock, Helix Well Ops, IRM Services, Peterson SBS. Newsletter:
• 12 new subscribers since last forum – total subscription now over 900.

STEERING COMMITTEE:
• We are sorry to lose Odfjell from the DROPS Steering Committee. Election at end of year will open opportunity for any others to join Committee. 

DROPS Forums:
• Last forum on May 26th was held in Stavanger – as usual very successful and well attended with some useful presentations – now uploaded on website. Next forum will be on the revised date of Thursday October 8th in Den Helder, Holland. Peterson SBS have kindly offered us their facilities for the forum and it will run from 12 – 4pm.

DROPS Training:
• DROPS Training sessions have continued in UK and overseas, including Norway/Holland. Asset-specific DROPS training undertaken in yard at Rotterdam. Shell-specific training in Holland and Norway. Enquiries for training in Asia, Texas and Alaska. Forthcoming dates for Aberdeen training sessions dates are posted on website. Work ongoing on the update of the training package – on schedule for year-end. 

SAFETY ALERTS:
• A number of Safety Alerts will be featured in today’s forum – full details posted to web thereafter.
• As ever, please send us details of any relevant safety alerts or flashes. Please email DROPS Administration with all Safety Alerts. 

NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND NEW PRODUCTS:
• Our “Snakes and Ladders” awareness campaign is now ready for issue in English and Norwegian. Samples available today. Will be issued to members this month and to campaign pack holders with annual update.
• Work ongoing with rationalising the DROPS campaign pack for update in 2009.
• Shell now making final adjustments to electronic version of the DROPS calculator
• Great demand for our DROPS prompt cards. Reprint arranged and Norwegian and Dutch translations in production.
• DROPS Statistics Workgroup making good progress and will present later today.
• Rogues Gallery ongoing but we need more exhibits
• No suggested articles for Newsletter. Deadline tomorrow for suggestions! Norway expressed interest in similar gallery at their Forum
• Web restructure continues. Ensuring Statistics Group requirements can be accommodated in new website. Draft to Steering Committee and pilot site by year-end.
• DROPS represented at recent follow-up meeting on Jar Clamps. New design to be field tested by Shell with feedback to DROPS Forum.

DROPS EVENTS AND PRESENTATIONS:
• Martin Leupen invited DROPS to present at SNS Pool event in Holland. Over 100 attendees – most from organisations new to DROPS. Great response resulting in new membership and great interest in the forthcoming Dutch Forum
• Wayne Bradford invited and sponsored DROPS to present at Dutch Wells HSE event. Again, new faces in attendance and much interest in joining DROPS.
• DROPS Asia and DROPS USA Chapters moving ahead. Their regional Steering Committee meetings and inaugural member forums are scheduled for October and November. 

ENQUIRIES AND GENERAL:
• Responded to enquiry on recommended practice for “weak links” in tool safety lanyards
• DROPS Membership Annual Fee pro-forma invoices will be issued on 1st August.

Incident Presentation – Steve Crowe, Rowan Drilling 
Steve gave an overview of an incident that happened in April this year. A section of 4-core electrical cable weighing approximately 1kg fell onto the weather deck. It is believed that the cable was used as packing and fell from the cable run. This could have been a fatality when measured on the DROPS calculator. Some of the immediate actions taken were to undertake a full sweep, abseiler to remove loose items, consider covered walkway. 
Follow this link to download the presentation. 

Striving to provide a safer working environment – Keith Gaskin, Titan Torque Services
Keith gave a demo and presentation on his latest product Titan Drill Bit Protector. The protector is designed to safely and simply prevent damage to the drillbit whilst made up to the drilling BHA whilst in transit offshore and onshore. For full details, please see full Presentation on the website. 
Follow this link to download the presentation.
You can also contact Keith directly on +44 1224 874659 
Email: Keith@titantorque.co.uk. 
Web: Titan Torque Website. 

Modified Equipment - Bob Thompson, Chevron
Bob gave a presentation on the use of locally fabricated and/or modified equipment. This presentation highlighted several fatalities that have occurred on Chevron facilities due to equipment not suitable for use. Bob’s second presentation showed photos of items that were found whilst undertaking DROPS Sweeps on various platforms in the US. These included items that were all modified. 
Follow this link to download the presentation. 

HSE Reported DROPS objects – Donald Dobson, HSE
Donald’s presentation was a brief overview of all dropped object statistics that he retrieved from the HSE database for the past 6 months. Donald broke them down into month, derrick & well operations, crane & lifting operations etc. Further slides detailed examples behind some of the statistics. 
Follow this link to download the presentation. 

Focus Group Updates
Statistics – Ronnie Watt, Total. Ronnie gave an overview of the new Dropped Object Register of Incidents and Statistics (DORIS). DORIS will be a database that all members can input their own statistics so as we can have an overall picture of member’s data. It will be confidential and not all field are mandatory. Investigations within companies should be completed before registering anything in DORIS. Statistics will be issued on a regular basis through the year, data starting to be input from Sept/Oct 2009. Trial database will be available at the December forum. Go-Live date January 2010. All attendees were invited to comment and give feedback. A further request was issued for the nomination of a Focal Point. Another reminder will go out to those who have not yet responded.

Open Floor and Any Other Business
Greg invited the attendees to offer any issues for further discussion in the open floor session. Question raised around Oil Expo. DROPS will not have a “booth” at the Oil Show. We will be contacting members in the near future to ask if we can have DROPS promotional material on any member stand. If you can accommodate any info please email DROPS Administration with your ideas and offers. 

Ageing Asset Focal Group – lack of numbers so it did not take up. We would like it to be resurrected for 2010. Statoil have kindly shared information that they have on Ageing Assets and the presentations are available to download from the DROPS website. 
Follow this link to download the reference material.