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Views on Vancouver

Posted in conferences, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

In less than 10 days, we kick off the International Regulators’ Offshore Safety Conference in Vancouver.  The venue is top-notch, the list of delegates is long and impressive, and the speakers are world leaders in offshore operations, safety, and regulatory practices.  Everything is in place for a productive conference; now it is up to us.  We must challenge the speakers, each other, and conventional wisdom if we want to make a difference.  We need to understand where we have been, and then focus on where we are going.  In that regard, the “Roundtable Discussions” will be an important part of the conference.  If you plan to attend the conference and would like to assist with the Roundtable Sessions, send a note to edanenberger@gmail.com.

Here are ten issues that I look forward to discussing with other delegates:

  1. How do we develop a comprehensive and verified international incident data base?   The IRF data and some of the industry efforts are good starts, but where do we go from there?
  2. What other performance data should be routinely collected?
  3. How do we assess emerging and hidden risks?  In that regard, I am looking forward to Torleif Husebø’s presentation: PSA’s Risk Level Measuring Scheme and how available data are collected and used.
  4. Looking beyond centralizers, long-strings, and corrosion caps, what are the management lessons from Macondo and Montara?
  5. Is there such a thing as a hybrid regulatory regime?  While a certain amount of prescription is necessary in any regulatory system, how can a regime have both  “command and control” and “safety case” elements?  Aren’t they contradictory?
  6. How do we develop and encourage safety leaders?  How do we measure their progress.  In that regard, I am really looking forward to Mark Fleming’s presentation: Know where you are going rather than where you have been! A Leaders’ guide to continuous safety performance measurement
  7. Can regulators inhibit industry safety achievement?  How do we encourage innovation and leadership?  How do we deal with those who have no interest in either?
  8. Should standards participation and safety research be a part of every operator’s safety management programs?
  9. Can the international community help provide stability and perspective during crises like Macondo?
  10. What are the next steps in international cooperation on offshore safety?

 

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Post-Macondo Drilling Safety Rule Posted by the Federal Register

Posted in drilling, Regulation, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »

The complete interim final Drilling Safety Rule is now posted on the Federal Register site.  This rule was announced on 30 September along with the Safety and Environmental Management System rule. The latter rule has not yet been posted by the Federal Register.

The Drilling Safety Rule is effective immediately.  With regard to comments:

While BOEMRE will not solicit comments before the effective date, BOEMRE will accept and consider public comments on this rule that are submitted within 60 days of its publication in the Federal Register. After reviewing the public comments, BOEMRE will publish a notice in the Federal Register that will respond to comments and will either:

1. confirm this rule as a final rule with no additional changes, or

2. issue a revised final rule with modifications, based on public comments.

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National Commission Releases 4 Draft Staff Papers

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Decision Making Within the Unified Command

The Use of Surface and Subsea Dispersants During the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

The Challenges of Oil Spill Response in the Arctic

The Amount and Fate of the Oil

 

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Two Items From Yesterday’s CG-BOEM Macondo Hearings

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Absent live streaming or television, the Times Picayune seems to be providing the best coverage of the Coast Guard – BOEM Macondo hearings in New Orleans.  While the legal sparring has attracted the most press interest, two other items in this Times Picayune article caught my attention.

Part of Keplinger and Fleytas’ duties was to monitor indicators of gas detectors and alarms from the bridge. Keplinger was busy showing visiting BP and Transocean officials a video-game-style simulator for 45 minutes to an hour before the explosions, he said, but he insisted that Fleytas was keeping him abreast of readouts of the rig’s systems.

Comment: Just as school teachers shouldn’t have been flying in the space shuttle, “tourists” shouldn’t have been visiting a complex drilling operation when the crew was in the process of setting production casing and suspending a potentially dangerous well. While the visit was well-intended, the last thing the crew needed on that night was to be distracted by a group of corporate executives.  The distraction they caused was comparable to driving on a dangerous highway while getting text messages from your boss. Visiting windows should be limited to relatively low-risk operations (e.g. when drilling ahead prior to reaching target intervals), and these windows should immediately close if complications develop.

Keplinger flashed some anger at Capt. Curt Kuchta, captain of the Deepwater Horizon rig, during his testimony. He noted that a fellow rig worker, Chris Pleasant, had to ask Kuchta three times whether to disconnect the rig from the wellhead before he got the go-ahead.

Comment: One of the benefits of drilling from a floating and dynamically positioned rig is the ability to move off location if trouble arises.  The failure to disconnect the riser and move away from the well at the first indication of flow contributed significantly to the tragic consequences.  The technical and human factors that prevented such a disconnect must be thoroughly examined.

Further comment: The absence of live streaming of these important safety hearings is inexcusable.  If a senator or governor were testifying, I expect that the cameras would be there.

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Complaints: C-SPAN Says “No” and Transcripts Too Slow!

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 5, 2010| 2 Comments »

  • C-SPAN has opted not to cover this weeks BOEMRE – Coast Guard Macondo hearings.  Instead, they are presenting recordings of political rallies, assorted senatorial and gubernatorial candidate debates, and similar fare.  In other words, all three channels will be dedicated to the usual political posturing that already receives non-stop national coverage, and the investigation into one of the more significant accidents in US history will be ignored.
  • Why does it take 3 weeks to post the transcripts of these hearings? The Australians posted each Montara transcript within hours after the day’s session ended.

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NOPSA CEO Jane Cutler on Leadership

Posted in Regulation, tagged , , , , , on October 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Jane Cutler, CEO of the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority, makes important comments on leadership in this interview.

I’m privileged to work with some great people who are passionate about improving safety. This role within NOPSA provides me with a great opportunity to make a difference and allows me to foster a really proactive work culture, removing obstacles that make it harder for people to do their work well.

Almost everyone involved with offshore safety is passionate about their work and wants to make a difference.  Unfortunately, they are often frustrated by administrative and organizational processes that prevent them from identifying and addressing important safety issues in the most effective and efficient manner.  While there has been much post-Macondo talk about safety policy, there has been little discussion about the organizational constraints that stifle initiative and creativity within regulatory programs.  The focus should be on enabling bright and dedicated people to create and sustain an optimal regulatory environment for safety achievement by the operating companies and their contractors.

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Joint BOEMRE-Coast Guard Panel Resumes Questioning

Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Capt. Hung Nguyen, David Dykes, and Jason Mathews question the witness. Sylvia Murphy and Kirk Malstrom monitor attentively from the 2nd row.

The panel that is most closely investigating the technical and operational aspects of the Macondo blowout reconvenes on Monday morning at 0800 CT in New Orleans.

I would assume that one of the CSpan stations will be covering the hearings, but their broadcast schedule for next week has not yet been posted.

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Drilling and Safety Management Rules Announced

Posted in accidents, Offshore Energy - General, Regulation, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on September 30, 2010| 2 Comments »

Today, BOEM released fact sheets describing the Drilling Safety and Safety and Environmental Management (SEMS) rules. The complete documents will be available for review as soon as they are published in the Federal Register.

Based on the fact sheet, the Drilling Safety Rule does not appear to include any significant surprises.  The rule seems to be generally consistent with the recommendations in Secretary Salazar’s 27 May Safety Measures Report to the President (the “30-Day Report”).  This is an Interim Final Rule that will be effective upon publication.

According to the fact sheet, the SEMS Rule will incorporate all elements of API RP 75 into BOEM regulations.  This is an improvement, in my opinion, from the proposed rule which incorporated only 4 elements of RP 75.  The effective date for this rule is not indicated in the fact sheet.

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Several interesting items!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on September 30, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Safety culture is how the organization behaves when no one is watching.

Also, NOPSA’s September Newsletter has some interesting updates including information on the jackup failure offshore China.

And how does a reporter question the humility of engineers? 🙂

Engineers do amazing things, but they aren’t always as smart as they think, nor their systems as robust as they seem on paper.

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Cuba Drilling Article in the NY Times

Posted in cuba, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 30, 2010| Leave a Comment »

In our last Cuba update, we noted that their next deepwater well always seems to be a year away. So it came as no surprise when we saw this in a New York Times article:

Yet next year, a Spanish company will begin drilling new wells 50 miles from the Florida Keys — in Cuba’s sovereign waters.

Comment: We have been hearing this for five years.  Will the well really be spudded next year?

The nascent oil industry in Cuba is far less prepared to handle a major spill than even the American industry was at the time of the BP spill. Cuba has neither the submarine robots needed to fix deepwater rig equipment nor the platforms available to begin drilling relief wells on short notice.

Comments: (1) Not a good time for the US to be lecturing Cuba about oil spills.  (2)In the event of a spill, all well intervention, relief well, and spill response equipment would no doubt be made available to Cuba without hesitation and with the full support of the US government. (3)A Cuban blowout is unlikely because every operator and contractor in the world will be focusing on well integrity and BOP performance issues that were factors in the Macondo blowout. (4)Informed international contacts have advised us that Cuban offshore officials are knowledgeable and committed to internationally accepted safety and pollution prevention standards.

My biggest concern with regard to Cuban offshore operations, assuming a moored rig is used, is that the rig would be set adrift during a hurricane and that anchors, mooring lines, or hulls could damage coral reefs and other sensitive seafloor features.  In the US, the MMS and industry did a lot of good work on mooring risk assessments and improved anchoring systems and mooring lines.   Given the significant probability that Cuban rigs will be exposed to hurricane conditions, it is imperative that US and Cuban specialists meet to discuss these issues.  Once a rig is adrift, there is not much that can be done to stop it.

Also, in an award winning project, a multi-agency US government team demonstrated enhanced satellite monitoring capabilities that provide timely information on the location of evacuated rigs.   These capabilities can be combined with gps systems to ensure continuous rig-tracking.

US-Cuban cooperation on offshore safety and pollution prevention issues is in the best interest of both countries, and should be encouraged without hesitation.

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