SPECIAL REPORT: Mechanization, collaboration enhance drilling rig safety
Industry has boosted its drilling safety emphasis, particularly in the last decade, through automated equipment innovations and intensified collaboration and commitment toward standard operating procedures among all stakeholders in a given project.
Safety is integral to daily business, agreed spokesmen from oil and gas operators, rig contractors, and service companies. Many of the majors have periodic meetings with representatives from their drilling contractors and service companies to discuss safety.
The national president of the American Association of Drilling Engineers (AADE) calls these meetings the best information-sharing sessions he has experienced across company lines. Joseph Leimkuhler is Shell Exploration & Production Co.’s offshore well delivery manager for tension leg platforms and platform operations in the Americas.
“The biggest thing that generates discussion is review of incidents, both near misses and actual incidents where somebody was injured,” Leimkuhler said. “We look at those in detail. The meeting has matured to the point where if you were to attend, it’s hard to tell who works for whom. Everybody shares information, ideas, and suggestions.”
Jimmy Moore, Transocean’s director of Quality, Health, Safety, and Environmental Services, said Transocean develops “partnerships” in the sense of preplanning and working side by side with oil companies vs. traditional contractor-client relationships.
“Clients support our safety processes,” Moore said. “We share lessons learned, there is constant communication, and many clients are involved in our own internal safety audits.”
Keith Morley, Weatherford senior vice-president and chief safety officer, emphasized equipment innovations and consistency of job execution, saying a job safety analysis is done for each individual activity to ensure that the standard operating procedure will work safely in a particular situation.
“If you don’t take into account the time of day or the weather, or any other influencing factor, you may still miss a hazard,” Morley said. “We are working to be aligned with our customers from a philosophical perspective as well as from a practical perspective.”
Cooperation, sharing of expectations, and documentation requirements are key to implementing standard operating procedures when multiple parties work together, Morley said.
Mechanization boosts safety
Automated pipe-handling systems have provided technology that allows industry to remotely operate all activities for tubular goodsdrill pipe, casing, tubing, or risers.
Leimkuhler said safety is improved whenever a worker can be taken away from putting their hands or bodies on high-energy sources, including top drives or hoisting and lifting equipment.
Weatherford’s Morley said, “We remove people from hazardous situations using automated systems that can be controlled from a remote panel.”
Since the late 1950s, tubular running services provider Weatherford has experienced an evolution of rig mechanization starting with the use of casing tongs to spin the tubular goods.
“Historically, you would use a spinning chain and a manual tong that required brute force and physical presence to be able to make the connections,” Morley said. “Power tongs removed hands literally from being in the line of fire on the tubular goods.”
In 1994, Weatherford developed remotely operated mechanized power tongs. In 1995, it developed the Stabberless system, a remotely controlled pipe alignment system. This eliminates the need for a derrickman to stand on the stabbing board 20-40 ft above the rig floor in order to lean out, grab pipe, and guide it.
This riser-handling mechanism on the Transocean Deepwater Discovery ultra-deepwater drillship off West Africa is an example of the automated equipment that is helping to make offshore drilling safer and more efficient. Photo from Transocean.
In 2005, Weatherford successfully had its first commercial run of its OverDrive system, which uses the power swivel on the rig coupled into the torque drive. It makes and breaks casing connections and provides casing running, reaming, and drilling capabilities.
From semisubmersibles to land rigs, a modular approach to rig mechanization provides operators with more options for safety and efficiency in tubular running operations, Morley said.
Weatherford currently is working to convert some of its systems traditionally used on large offshore rigs into smaller, cost-appropriate systems for use on land rigs.
Dropped objects remain a concern
All lifting and hoisting operations have the potential for dropped objects although improved processes make continued progress toward zero-incident operations, industry spokesmen said.
Offshore, cranes hoist containerized loads from supply boats to rigs and platforms. Transocean assesses every lift and inspects related tools and equipment. It uses video, animation, and still photography to show crew members what lessons are learned from those inspections.
“Our Dropped Objects team, in the corporate office, is reviewing ways we can continue to reduce and eliminate dropped objects,” Moore said. “Examples are engineering out hazards, performing operations in new ways, or by improving our existing tools.”
Transocean is developing a new company standard for performing “Drops” inspections, increasing awareness with rig workers, instituting formal no-go zones, and developing picture books to improve inspections of equipment used at heights, he said.
Shell’s Leimkuhler notes that improvements in lifting and hoisting operations have stemmed from procedural changes, such as standardized lifting points, more than any new technology.
“Various companies have different standards,” Leimkuhler said. “At the end of the day, we are still lifting loads that range from a few hundred pounds to tens of thousands of pounds. You still have to have roustabouts to help position that load as it comes down from the crane hoist. Under ideal conditions, the roustabout never touches the load and uses tag lines to safely position the load on the deck.”
Shell is instituting a hands-off policy in which only specific pre-approved loads can be handled by hand. All other loads must be managed with tag lines. While this is safer, there are still risks to be managed.
“A tag line can get wrapped around your hand or foot. It’s pretty rare, but it happens,” Leimkuhler said. “The bottom line is that unlike the drill pipe handlingwhich has gone to a fully automated handling system on 75% of Shell’s rigs in the Gulf of Mexicothe crane and lifting system hasn’t changed that much.”
Efficiency means safety
Safety performance and cost effectiveness consistently go together. Shell’s Leimkuhler said the rigs with the best project performance records also have the best safety records.
“The biggest risks we face in the drilling industry in terms of cost are operational miscues or something you were not anticipating,” Leimkuhler said. “If you have an organization that is taking enough time to plan their operation from a safety perspective, it’s almost a certainty that they are doing the same level of planning and thinking around the operational steps related to the job itself. Those who get the job done safely also tend to get it done right the first time.”
Transocean’s Moore emphasizes the need for “a well thought-out plan and following itdo what we say we’re going to do.” If the work does not go as envisioned, anyone on the rig is encouraged to stop the job so adjustments can be made to continue safe operations.
“Every incident (whether safety or operational) has a cost in time, manpower, and reputation,” Moore said. “We investigate every loss whether business, equipment, or safety related, analyze the findings, and ensure any learning from those incidents are well communicated.”
Moore is involved with the integration of two corporate safety management systems following the merger of GlobalSantaFe Corp. and Transocean (OGJ, Aug. 27, 2007, p. 30).
A gap analysis of the two management systems concluded that direction and culture was closely aligned. “A decision was made to use the legacy Transocean management system going forward, not because it was inherently better but for convenience,” Moore said.
A team was assigned to integrate the management systems through a process named Next Steps. Transocean Pres. and Chief Operating Officer Steven Newman calls Next Steps “the most important activity” in 2008 in terms of company culture. More than $20 million was budgeted for Next Steps training for selected rig personnel worldwide.
Oil and gas companies examine the safety reputation of drilling contractors and service companies when deciding whether to award a job. In some cases, safety performance incentives are included in contracts.
Moore said incentives can raise the safety profile, but he believes that care has to be taken as to how the incentives are managed and how they are measured.
Leimkuhler said Shell’s contract safety performance incentives are set up so the reward goes directly to the rig crews through the contractors payroll system. Shell monitors each rig’s performance on a regional as well as global basis.
“If you have an incident of noncompliance related to operationswhether you have a reportable spill or you have a reportable incident with somebody getting hurtany one of those incidents, you lose 50% of your bonus. You have two, you lose it all. We reset the clock each month on each rig,” Leimkuhler said.
He estimates that crews achieve their safety bonus 80% of the time, adding that some rigs have received the monthly safety bonus for up to 2 years. The bonus helps with staff retention, Leimkuhler said. The negative side to safety incentives is the possibility that they could drive down incident and hazard reporting.
“If somebody is aware that if they report an injury that could cost them a safety bonus they could be less inclined to report,” Leimkuhler asked. “That’s a risk you’ve got to deal with, it’s human nature. So therefore, we don’t include the Shell supervisors in the safety bonus program.”
Shell has other programs to encouraging reporting. Workers are rewarded with nominal safety awards for reporting unsafe conditions.
“We really go out of our way to encourage and reward reporting,” Leimkuhler said. “I think that counteracts any potential tendency to not report….You must make sure you have a strong reporting culture and constantly check it.”
The banksman works with the crane operator to ensure that lifted items arrive safely. Photo from Transocean.
“Leimkuhler monitors reporting rates for both actual incidents and proactive safety efforts” He said the best indicator of a reporting problem is when recordable incidents increase while proactive safety efforts decrease.
“You have to have a process in place that lets you track the leading indicators and not rely on reacting to actual accidents and incidents,” Leimkuhler said.
People and environment
Offshore drilling contractors and service companies integrate safety management and environmental management in order to safeguard the environment just as they safeguard people and property.
Ian R. Hudson, corporate environmental manager for Transocean, said he leverages the company’s safety emphasis to demonstrate an equal corporate emphasis on environment.
“We have one consistent set of tools and systems,” Hudson said. “For instance, the tools that we use on the rig for monitoring safety are the same tools we use for planning processes that may involve environmental risks.”
Scott Robinson, Weatherford quality, health, safety, security and environment vice-president, said all QHSSE staff work to support both safety and environmental concerns with a goal of providing world-class performance for clients while providing a safe work environment for employees and contractors.
Exploration and production clients request less hazardous or nonhazardous alternatives to chemicals wherever possible, especially for offshore applications, he said.
“When chemical usage is involved at an E&P site (where we provide the chemical, i.e., diesel, foam, corrosion inhibitors, etc.,) Weatherford is required to manage the environmental risk through the use of spill plans, secondary containment, and emergency procedures,” Robinson said.
As part of Transocean’s drive for an incident-free workplace, Hudson wants everybody on all 138 Transocean rigs and onshore facilities to work in the same direction toward the same objectives.
Transocean has incorporated environmental management along with safety management in every job-planning process. Hudson called the process “a transformation toward thinking about how daily jobs might pose risks to the environment along with risks to personnel.”
“Rig supervisors think about ways a person can get injured,” Hudson said. “Planners also are asked to think about substance containment and ways such substances may be lost to the environment. We have prompts along the way that are basically trying to increase an individual’s hazard awareness.”
During 2007, Transocean implemented a new Environmental Management System (EMS) for its rigs and offices to set a company standard and ensure that all operations are managed in an environmentally responsible manner all the time, Hudson said.
Environmental performance is part of any drilling contract, he said, adding he believes it’s implicit that future drilling contracts will continue to have specific items and criteria related to environmental protection.
“Historically, the industry has moved in a direction where many clients have dictated what the contractors do,” Hudson said. “But I think we have recognized that environment is part of good business…whether your clients are asking you to do something or not. The majority of drilling contractors have now taken on the model that environmental management is our own responsibility.”
