BackDROPS FORUM - Aberdeen, 3rd December 2009
Present:
Bill Anderson, BJ Services; Neil Birnie, Vetco Gray; Derek Birse, BOL; Wayne Bradford, Transocean; James Brown, Dolphin Drilling; Sue Calder, Silverdot; Donald Dobson, HSE; Dougie Greig, Seawell; Vetli Tveiten, Statoil; Robert Eaton, Maersk; Johan Kolsto, DOM Group; Kenny Leggat, Transocean; Martin Leupen, Shell; Keith Little, Servtech; Alistair Macdonald, Gulf Offshore; Caroline Marr, Aker Solutions; Neil Marr, BP; Alan Moore, Chevron; Stacey Murphy, Shell; Debbie Mecklenburgh, Shell; Greg Reid, Silverdot; Dave Richardson, NOV; Neil Robertson, HRAI; Nigel Shuttleworth, Shell; Jim Smith, Scotgrip; Allen Smith, Silverdot; Christoffer Strom, Transocean; Bob Thompson, Chevron; Fredrik Vinnes, DetNorske; Richard Waddington, Nordlock; Mark Watt, Scotgrip; Ronnie Watt, Total; Dave White, StopdropTooling; Kjartan Taranger, Statoil; Charles Wilson, Weatherford; Graham Souter, Nord-Lock; Graham Todd, Chevron; Lenny West, Talisman; Alistair Tong, ADC; Bill Reid, DSL; George Allison, Total; William Montgomery, Aker Solutions; Louise Mugford, Shell; Brian Innes, Stena.
Greg Reid of Silverdot opened the Forum and gave a Safety Brief.
DROPS Update – Greg Reid, DROPS
MEMBERSHIP:
Delighted to welcome following new DROPS members: Det Norske Oljeselsakp, Maersk Drilling Brunei, Atwood Oceanics, South Seas Inspection, Scorpion Offshore, Pride International and Reliance Industries Inc.
NEWSLETTER:
The autumn issue was released and the new format proved to be a huge success with many positive feedback comments received. We are now approaching 1000 online subscribers and 1000 printed copies were also circulated. The winter issue is currently in development and Allen Smith will present a draft later. Please let us know how many printed copies you would like. A thanks goes to DSL for sponsoring the development of the winter issue. A sponsor is sought for the next issue – cost £2500 (incl printing).
STEERING COMMITTEE:
We are pleased to advise that Total, Shell, BOL, Chevron, Talisman, Statoil, Transocean, BP and Maersk Contractors will remain on the DROPS Steering Committee. Odfjell have been valued members of the committee but will not sit in 2010. Any company wishing to join the Steering Committee should notify us by 31 December. Delighted to advice that Shell has continued to sponsor Debbie Mecklenburgh to serve as DROPS Secretary throughout 2010.
Sadly we have to announce that Bob Thompson of Chevron is moving on (Houston). Bob has been a key player in DROPS for many years. Alan Moore will be the new DROPS focal point for Chevron. Bob assures us that he will be part of the DROPS movement in the USA.
DROPS Forums:
• A forum was held in Den Helder, Holland on 8 October and was extremely well attended (50+) – minutes and presentations available on the web.
• An Asian forum was held in Kuala Lumpur on 13 October and a North American Forum was held in Houston on 16 November. Both events were exceptionally well attended (50+ both) and commitment to regional Chapters are now in place. Minutes for both forums are available to download.
• Forum dates have been set for 2010 and are detailed later in the minutes.
DROPS Training:
DROPS Training sessions have continued in UK and overseas, including Norway, Holland, Malaysia, Houston and Alaska. Forthcoming dates for Aberdeen training sessions will be posted on our website. Work is ongoing on the update of the training package and we are in dialogue with Weatherford in USA. They wish to develop a CBT version of the training and share this with the DROPS community.
SAFETY ALERTS:
• A number of Safety Alerts will be featured in today’s forum – full details will be posted to the web thereafter.
• The Marine Safety Forum have notified us of an interesting Dropped Objects presentation, covering several marine incidents – the link will be posted with the minutes of today’s forum.
As ever, please send us details of any relevant safety alerts or flashes.
NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND NEW PRODUCTS:
• Thanks to Shell, the electronic version of the DROPS calculator is now available online
• Thanks to Statoil, issue 2 of Reliable Securing is now available (copies to all attendees). The new version introduced many new equipment types and we have included new general guidance on dropped object prevention
• Snakes and Ladders workshops issued in several languages
• DROPS Autumn newsletter issued
• DROPS Winter newsletter will be issued in the next month
• Work is ongoing with rationalisation and preparation of the 2009 DROPS campaign pack update
• DROPS Statistics Workgroup (DORIS) has made good progress
• Our first Rogues Gallery is up and going at Bristow’s – MORE EXHIBITS PLEASE!!
• Web template developed and working with Statistics Group and DROPS Asia/America to accommodate all requirements.
• Dropsafe demonstrated their novel “steel netting” retention concept at recent forums.
• Go-HomeSafe demonstrated their latest two animated DVD workshops at recent forums; Crane Operations Offshore and Quayside Lifting Operations. For further details, please see their website www.gohomesafe.com
• StopDrop Tooling demonstrated their tools at height toolkit at recent forums. Visit www.stopdroptooling.com
• Reliance Fall Protection demonstrated, at the US forum, their lanyard and tool products, including energy absorbing lanyards and their banding device to accommodate lanyard fixing on hand held tools. Visit www.relsafe.com.
• Nord-Lock presented their bolting technology at recent forums
• Atlas Industrial have a table-top demo today – members were invited to visit during the coffee and lunch breaks
DROPS Global:
• Excellent uptake in DROPS globalisation, where Asian and North American Chapters will now manage their own forums and focus groups within the global DROPS structure. Potential new Middle East Chapter in 2010.
• First independent DROPS Asia Steering Committee meeting is to be held on 8 December to establish Chair, Secretary and announce their next forum where 2010 Asian Focus Groups will be defined and established.
• For DROPS North America, 20 attended the Steering Committee meeting with great enthusiasm to proceed. Planning their first independent Steering Committee meeting for mid January where they will also elect Chair, Secretary and announce their first self-run forum where North America’s 2010 Focus Groups will be defined and established.
Dropped Products – Allen Smith, DROPS
Allen gave an update on various products that have recently been demonstrated and some that are currently being worked on. Firstly we saw a product developed by a company called Dropsafe. This is a mesh safety net/cover that can be placed over an item at height as a method of securing. For more info, please see the website directly www.dropsafe.com.
We were also given updates on DROPS products that have been developed. Our first Rogues Gallery is now in place at Bristow’s Heliport in their main reception and our thanks go to Reel Group and Bristow’s. This cabinet is the first that we have managed to fill with items that have been found in a variety of locations. Each item has a short description card detailing the weight, height fallen and the potential consequence. We are working on getting other cabinets into heliports in Aberdeen.
Prompt cards are available and widely in use. These cover a checklist to be aware of when offshore. These can be produced, at a cost, with your own company logo and contact details.
Snakes & Ladders game is another tool that has been developed and is available in English, Norwegian and Dutch.
Thanks to Statoil and TFS we now have the 2nd edition of the Reliable Securing booklet. All attendees received a copy. Please email DROPS Administration if you require further copies. Our latest newsletter was well received and is available in both hard copy format or downloadable from our website. If you wish to sponsor a future copy of the newsletter, please email DROPS Administration. If you wish to suggest articles for our future newsletters, then please let us know.
The Dropped Objects statistics database (DORIS), an online reporting tool, is nearing completion. The focus group are aiming to present this to various industry bodies and associations, and then it will be rolled out to the DROPS community in Q1 2010.
Corrosion Awareness – Susan Cushnaghan, Shell
Shell has a Corrosion Awareness programme running throughout their facilities currently and originally was focussing on production/topsides but now being delivered in the drilling organisation. Corrosion was previously not part of a DROPS survey. The slide presentation was delivered that detailed incidents with regard to drilling related corrosion problems. In conjunction with the Shell corrosion sessions, there is a joint industry project which has developed handbooks available by the Energy Institute (External Corrosion Handbook) www.energyinst.org ISBN 978 0 85293 484 5. DROPS will open dialogue with the Energy Institute to look at obtaining copies of these booklets.
Follow this link to download the presentation.
Follow this link to download the poster.
Marine Safety Forum update - Alistair MacDonald, Gulf Offshore
The MSF presentation showed examples of potential dropped object items that have been found in a variety of locations.
Follow this link to download the presentation.
Best Practice/Knowledge Transfer – Vetli Tveiten, Statoil
Vetli gave a presentation around Housekeeping, which is the latest product that has been developed by a Best Practice Group. This group consists of Statoil and a variety of oil and gas related service companies. The group have developed a variety of best practices which were based on the needs identified by offshore organisations and were established by evaluating and using “the best” from each company.
Follow this link to download the presentation. In 2007 there was a serious incident involving a falling tubular. There was another similar incident in 2009. In both cases the elevator was fixed facing downwards, instead of upwards, and not latched properly. The manufacturer had taken steps to issue a Product update notification in 2007. If you wish to discuss this further with Vetli, please contact him directly vtv@statoil.com
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 from June to November 2009. 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 Issues/Groups – The Way Ahead – Greg Reid, DROPS
Greg opened the discussion for members to nominate the issues that they would like to be worked on and discussed in 2010. He covered the focus issues that had been covered to date and gave a brief overview of the progress of those still being worked on. The US forum had came up with a variety of topics that they wish to cover in 2010, and their best practices will be shared as part of Global DROPS. Ageing Assets; Training update; Common Inspection Standard; Secondary Wire Retention and Seasonal Campaigns have been a recurring theme and are recommended to be the focus issues for 2010 in the UK.
Open Floor and Any Other Business
Allen invited the attendees to offer any issues for further discussion in the open floor session. Kenny Leggat of Transocean dedicated a poem to Greg & Allen and thanked them for their dedication and commitment in the prevention of Dropped Objects. Nord-lock and Atlas Industrial gave tabletop demos. To get more information on their products, please see websites www.hi-linetools.co.uk and www.nord-lock.com