Dropsafe Newsletter: Dropped Objects must be fully accounted for in Offshore Energy

This summer the Dropsafe team has attended a number of industry events across the Offshore Energy, Mining and Oil & Gas industries. We have travelled from Australia to Aberdeen to Amsterdam meeting site operators, health and safety decision makers, contractors and industry leaders to discuss the ever-present issue of Dropped Object risk.

The 2019 Offshore Energy conference in Amsterdam was well attended by leading players in the power generation industry. One of the biggest talking points to come out of the conference was the health and safety challenges being faced by offshore Oil & Gas rig managers whose assets are in a decommissioning phase. The decommissioning market is rapidly expanding as Oil & Gas prices are squeezed and contractors increasingly find themselves under significant pressure.

The North Sea currently has around 600 O&G platforms, of which 470 are due to be decommissioned in the next 30 years. The consequences of this is that hundreds of tonnes of aging infrastructure must be dismantled in difficult offshore conditions. These assets will have spent extensive periods of time receiving minimal maintenance in rough, salty water while being exposed to sometimes intense UV radiation. This not only poses risks to personnel and valuable equipment, but also to the environment.

The threat of corroded and damaged fittings would be a cause for heightened Drops risk in any case, but when added to the jolting and vibrations entailed by the decommissioning process, the sector must ensure that Drops prevention is fully ingrained into Health & Safety procedures. Unless all personnel are trained to recognise and prevent Drops hazards, and given the highest quality Drops prevention solutions, it is only a matter of time before a Dropped Object incident occurs.

We explore this issue in more detail and present our five key risk areas that decommissioning contractors must target to tackle Drops effectively in our latest release ‘Dropped Objects Threaten Safe Offshore Decommissioning’.

Elsewhere in this edition of Dropsafe’s Quarterly newsletter, we explore how the booming offshore wind industry is taking on lessons learned from Oil & Gas with our analysis of the G+ Reliable Securing Guidelines. We also detail the risk of Dropped Objects in wind in Wind Systems magazine and examine how Barrier systems can mitigate the risk of Drops in Engineer Live.

Finally, we highlight opportunities to meet the Dropsafe team throughout the rest of 2019, with a number of key industry events on the horizon. In the meantime, do get in touch if you have any comments, queries or feedback.

Enjoy the edition.

Mike Rice

Commercial Director, Dropsafe