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OFFSHORE E-NEWS
May 2000
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VIEWPOINT:
ABS VP MALCOLM SHARPLES
PROMOTING THE SAFETY OF OFFSHORE INSTALLATIONS
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During
1999, ABS was involved with 23 major new construction
or conversions for MODUs;
and, for floating production systems:
5 TLPs;
6 FPSOs;
2 Semisubmersibles;
2 Spar/deep draft caisson vessels;
and a wide variety of other offshore projects. |
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Every
year, the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston
serves to remind us that the tremendous changes we see every
day in the course of ABS work – the engineering feats,
the challenging new designs, the construction and installation
demands – are taking the industry in directions that
have put increasing demands on owners, operators and contractors.
Safeguarding human life and protecting the environment topped
the agendas of every major offshore project we worked on in
1999, and with the technical complexity of installations increasing,
innovative new ways to assure safety and environmental initiatives
are also on the rise.
As the
industry leader in offshore classification, ABS has had an
opportunity to view and, from the front row, participate in
the latest developments in terms of safety that are used by
project managers building installations for major oil companies
and large oil & gas contractors.
Based
on our own extensive in-house research and the significant
experience of our clients, there is no question in our minds
that the two most important disciplines relating to safety
and the environment are risk management and human factors.
These two disciplines, when combined with other traditional
approaches, will help improve safety standards.
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Risk management
is not new to the oil & gas industry but the sophistication
of risk analyses have increased dramatically over the last several
years. For example, the future of maintenance and survey will, along
with its normal purview, inspect with added vigilance areas or systems
identified through risk analysis as the most likely to be cause
for concern. In essence, there will be greater understanding of
where to look, and why. The role of risk in classification extends
well beyond regulatory compliance, and reaches into the design process
to allow for greater flexibility to build smarter while still meeting
and exceeding safety and environmental targets. It continues after
commissioning, guiding inspections.
Also important,
but slower to become integrated into wide usage, is the logic of
human factors and ergonomics as they apply to safety and environmental
programs. Design decisions can have an unwitting impact on how the
end-user interprets or uses a system, resulting in errors that can
have devastating effects on human life and the sea and shore environments.
Recognizing that human factors are essential to design, ABS has
devoted significant research to developing a comprehensive set of
guidelines, now available.
Risk management
and human factors are merely part of an integrated whole that when
pooled with an appropriate basket of methods can improve the overall
integrity of a project. Probably the most significant challenge
facing offshore project teams is seamlessly integrating the latest
developments with traditional wisdom and experience.
With that in
mind, ABS and ABS affiliated companies have coordinated their offshore
services into an offshore project development team that provides
a spectrum of risk and classification services to take large offshore
projects from initial funding through to final decommissioning,
and all the landmarks in between: design, construction, installation,
maintenance and communications. The deeper significance of this
coordination was our certainty at ABS and ABS Group that successful
projects need continuity among its partners, and that this history,
in turn, furthers safety and environmental objectives.
Best regards,
Malcolm Sharples
ABS Vice President, Offshore,
Technology & Business Development
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