The hearing will focus on the causes of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and will be broadcast live on C-SPAN2. The panelists and speakers are listed here.
Posted in accidents, well control incidents | Tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, National Commission, offshore oil, oil spill, safety, well control | Leave a Comment »
Odd Finnestad alerted us to some brilliant engineering solutions at There I Fixed It. We have selected a few in honor of our structural engineering colleagues, whose commitment to safety, continuous improvement, and innovation never ceases to amaze us!
structural engineering solution to paperwork management challenges
correcting dangerous structural weakness without stopping "production"
backup seat belt option using existing structure and systems
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged safety, structural engineering | Leave a Comment »
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Chilean Miner, Edison Pena, Letterman | Leave a Comment »
The above slide is from the excellent presentation that Jan de Jong (Inspector General, State Supervision of Mines, the Netherlands) never got to deliver in Vancouver. As session chair, Jan graciously yielded his time to his panelists.
Jan’s presentation notes the growing importance of international cooperation. This trend has the potential to improve regulatory capabilities, expand data availability and access, reduce regulatory costs through the sharing of resources, reduce costs for industry through greater international consistency and regulatory certainty, and improve international relations. The Netherlands, Russia, Norway, Cuba, the US, and everyone else should be on the same team when it comes to offshore safety and pollution prevention. Some near-term suggestions follow:
- Except where regional conditions dictate otherwise, the same standards should be applied worldwide. Government and industry should be collectively questioning, testing, and improving these standards. Remember that the goal is continuous improvement, not mere compliance.
- An international information system should provide for the collection and verification of incident and performance data.
- Using international data and expertise, a cooperative risk assessment program should be initiated.
- An organized international audit capability should be established to evaluate operators and regulators.
- To improve access to expertise and reduce costs, a network of specialists should assist regulators worldwide.
- Industry training requirements should be uniform and consistently applied, and regulator training programs should be consolidated regionally or internationally.
- The international research network should be expanded.
- To ensure that accidents are investigated independently and to minimize the potential for political influences on the investigation process, an international accident investigation capability should be established.
- The safety culture message should be promoted worldwide. Successes and failures should be cooperatively examined.
Posted in IRF, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation | Tagged international, IRF, Jan de Jong, regulations, safety culture, single regulator, SSM, vancouver | Leave a Comment »
From Western Australia Business News:
The gulf between the Western Australian government and Canberra continues to widen, with state mines and petroleum minister Norman Moore writing to local oil and gas companies for support to block plans for a single national oil regulator.
Comment: What is Mr. Moore offering the companies in return for their support? This “turf” battle shows why you can’t have multiple authorities regulating the same facilities. Disputes, self-interest, conflicting agendas and priorities, and “turf” issues drain too much energy from the regulators and the industry being regulated. Concerns about critical operational risks are superseded by coordination activities and debates about who is in charge.
Posted in Regulation | Tagged Australia, regulatory philosophy, single regulator, Western Australia | Leave a Comment »
Those who read this obscure blog regularly know that we have been railing about the release of the Montara Inquiry Report since it was delivered to Energy Minister Ferguson on 18 June 2010. The report has now sat on the Minister’s desk for nearly twice as long as the Montara well flowed into the Timor Sea at an announced rate (cough, cough) of 400 barrels per day.
BOE wants to thank Minister Ferguson for helping teach us the virtue of patience, an important life skill that some of us had not previously mastered. In our newly enlightened state, we are becoming more observant. As a result, we noticed that the Australian Senate has already passed legislation strengthening the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority (NOPSA).
After reviewing information about the legislation here and here, I am a bit confused about the changes being enacted. However, if the concerns (below) of Tina Hunter, an Assistant Professor at Bond University who had previously submitted testimony to the Montara Inquiry, have not been yet been addressed, Parliament needs to revise the legislation. Multiple regulators are a problem, not a solution. (The US needs to take notice.)
These legislative changes proposed will still split the responsibilities for Well Operations Management Plans between NOPSA and the responsible Delegated Authority (who assesses the well design and construction and drilling applications)….Furthermore, the regulatory amendments do not consider the environmental regulation of well operations and integrity, which also remains with the relevant Commonwealth or State Authority. Therefore, whilst in principle these proposed legislative amendments will provide benefits for the regulation of well integrity, it will still split the regulatory responsibility of well integrity between multiple regulators. Tina Hunter
Posted in accidents, well control incidents | Tagged Australia, Minister Ferguson, Montara, NOPSA | Leave a Comment »
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Rescued Chilean miner Edison Pena
Jared with Meb Keflezighi
Forget about the guys up front, this will be the marquis race in NYC on Sunday!
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The following are the consensus findings and recommendations of the 200 operations, safety, and regulatory specialists who participated in the International Regulators’ Offshore Safety Conference (18-20 October, Vancouver):
- Regulatory regimes function most effectively when a single entity has broad safety and pollution prevention responsibility. Gaps, overlap, and confusion are not in the interest of safety or regulatory efficiency.
- The regulator’s core responsibilities and objectives must be clearly identified. Managers must minimize distractions so that regulatory personnel can focus on these objectives.
- Safety management and regulatory priorities should be identified through a comprehensive risk assessment program. Training and competency development programs should be updated to reflect the new risk information. Contracting strategies should be reviewed to assess their safety and risk implications.
- Government and industry should promote an improvement mentality, not a compliance mentality. Continuous communication among regulators, operators, contractors, workers, industry associations and public interest groups is essential for continuous improvement.
- Operators and contractors must manage their companies to achieve safety objectives and must continually assess the effectiveness of their management programs. Regulators should challenge industry to resolve potential safety problems rather than seek to resolve the problems for them.
- Regulators should serve as catalysts for learning by distributing information, hosting workshops, participating in research, and identifying gaps in standards and best practices. Wherever possible, the best standards should be identified and applied internationally.
- Accident investigations should be conducted independently and findings should be promptly and broadly distributed. Industry or government should maintain comprehensive and verified incident data bases. Offshore companies should regularly discuss the causes and implications of past accidents with their employees.
- Industry and government cannot rely solely on incident data to identify risks. New indicators must be explored and assessed, particularly for major hazards and safety culture. Worker input is also essential.
- Peer-based audit programs should be considered for both regulators and operators.
- Industry and regulators should make better use of technology for real time monitoring of safety parameters.
- Sustaining outstanding safety performance is critical to the reputation of industry and government. All personnel should be trained to be safety leaders and should be empowered to stop work without blame.
- Industry and government should Investigate other actions and programs that might help promote, sustain, and monitor a culture of safety achievement.
This is very good, fundamental guidance for all governments and companies.
Posted in conferences | Tagged IRF, offshore oil, safety, vancouver | Leave a Comment »
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 