AN ADVANCED PROCEDURE FOR THE QUANTITATIVE RISK ASSESSMENT OF OFFSHORE INSTALLATIONS IN EXPLOSIONS

Hydrocarbon explosion and fire are typical accidents in the offshore oil and gas industry, sometimes with catastrophic consequences such as casualties, property damage and pollution. Successful engineering and design should meet both functional requirements associated with operability in normal conditions and health, safety, environmental and ergonomics (HSE&E) requirements associated with accidental and extreme conditions. A risk-based approach is best for successful design and engineering to meet HSE&E requirements. This study aimed to develop an advanced procedure for assessing the quantitative risk of offshore installations in explosions. Unlike existing industry practices based on prescriptive rules or qualitative approaches, the proposed procedure uses an entirely probabilistic approach. The procedure starts with probabilistic selection of accident scenarios. As the defining components of risk, both the frequency and consequences associated with selected accident scenarios are computed using the most refined technologies. Probabilistic technology is then applied to establish the relationship between the probability of exceedance and the physical values of the accident. Acceptance risk criteria can be applied to define the nominal values of design and/or level of risk. To validate and demonstrate the applicability of the proposed procedure, an example of its application to topside structures of an FPSO unit subjected to hydrocarbon explosions is detailed. The conclusions and insights obtained are documented.

Eco Friendly Lighting Options for Offshore Installations and Related Design Challenges

The impact of artificial lighting on birds and animals has been a subject of research for many decades. These studies have established that light pollution from offshore facilities result in disturbing effects on migratory birds and marine animals. It is understood from the various studies that light emanating from offshore structures attract birds at night and disorient them during their migratory flight. As they are distracted from their flight path, they are either found trapped by the light that they keep circling around the installations or make them to take shelter in the installations, ultimately making them miss their migratory journey. This results in reduced winter survival and reduced reproduction success. Many birds are also found to die eventually because of bird strike or by getting themselves incinerated in flares. Congregation of birds in offshore installations also lead to risks related to helicopter landing / take-off. It is also observed that artificial light attracts marine species like turtles and fishes, which result in adverse effects like alteration of feeding habits, impacted circadian rhythm and interference with their reproductive function. From the knowledge of aforementioned disruptive effects of artificial lighting, significant efforts have been made to develop lighting systems for offshore installations that are eco-friendly. Various means of mitigating the undesirable effects of artificial lighting in offshore installations are being tried in the last couple of decades.

Quality indicators of telemedical care offshore—a scoping review

Background Offshore industries operate all around the world in diverse and remote environments. The use of telemedicine to ensure up-to-date medical care for thousands of people offshore has been common practice for decades. Thus, in this setting, extensive experiences with this type of health care delivery have already been gathered, while in other settings this is just beginning. However, the quality of telemedical care on offshore installations is rarely reported yet. The objective of this review was to explore published literature with regards to the following questions: Have any Quality Indicators (QIs) been published for measuring the quality of telemedical care on offshore installations or are there identifiable items that could be used as such QIs? Methods We conducted a comprehensive Scoping Review (PRISMA-ScR) of the published literature using the databases MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science (Core Collection), and Google Scholar. Search results were read and QIs or findings from which QIs could be derived were classified according to the dimensions of quality established by Donabedian (structure, process, or outcome QIs). Results The search returned 10,236 non-recurring articles, 45 of which were full-text screened and 15 of which were included in this review. Types of publications were heterogenous. No QIs for the quality of telemedical care offshore have been published yet. Findings that could be the basis for QIs focused on structure quality (11 QIs) followed by process quality (11 QIs), while outcome quality was less common (1 QI). Conclusion Currently, although years of experience with telemedical care on offshore installations exist, there is a paucity of research on a solid data base regarding the quality of telemedical care offshore. The authors derived a list of 24 possible QIs from the findings of the publications for further validation. This could be the basis for implementation and definition of QIs in this and in similar remote settings.

Outlining the Challenges of COVID-19 Pandemic on Africa’s Maritime Industry: the Case of Marine and Seafaring Professionals

Despite the ‘Key Worker’ status accorded seafarers in moments of demonstrable selflessness -ensuring, adequate supply of food, medicines, consumables like personal protective equipment (PPEs), and energy - there is a lack of genuine interest in their concerns, leading to various calls from major stakeholders such as the United Nations and International Maritime Organization. These calls associate- with various covid-19-related policies and regulations having a direct bearing on the ongoing crew change crises, maroon and overstay of contracts, poor mental health, rise in covid-19 infections and other unrelated illnesses among ship crew. Thus, to what extent are non-traditional seafaring nations of Africa being impacted? The study examines these concerns by identifying and investigating implemented covid-19 policies and regulations and their impact on maritime operations and crew ‘wellbeing;’ the contingency measures and innovations aiding mitigate responses with minimal challenges to seafarers and marine professionals. The case study approach focuses on West Africa’s maritime corridor, examining operations in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria and Angola to a host of varied ports and offshore installations operations. Direct field observations, as well as questionnaires and interviews of expert or ‘eye witness’ account, deployed via phone calls, online social media and emails are carried out. The study finds MLC 2006 was not been complied with. Embarkation quarantine measures and testing implemented for offshore Ghana and Angola could not prevent the outbreak of cases onboard FPSO units respectively, though the process identified positive cases during quarantine. The stigma associated with positive cases amongst the crew were prevalent in the first six months of pandemic declaration. Of the survey conducted amongst 71 vessel crew, 32.14% were certain of having recorded Covid-19 positive cases on their various Jobsites, 91.06% showed support for IMO-led interventions against covid-19, 30% complained of uncertainty spared by rumours as fueling poor mental health. However, only 19% willingly addressed issues of their proximity to covid-19. Vaccine inoculations upon commencing March 2021 remained low in the region amongst marine professionals. Mitigating measures implemented include increased internet and call access, and extensive boarding protocols. In conclusion, lessons learnt within these periods of history going forward should inform the need for a comprehensively developed global emergency response contingency regulatory plan that identifies various potential threats, establishes adequate measures and make adjustment for review and amendments –to be instated only in times of global emergencies.

A Crew Scheduling Model to Incrementally Optimize Workforce Assignments for Offshore Wind Farm Constructions

In the literature, different authors attribute between 15% to 30% of a wind farm’s costs to logistics during the installation, e.g., for vessels or personnel. Currently, there exist only a few approaches for crew scheduling in the offshore area. However, current approaches only satisfy subsets of the offshore construction area’s specific terms and conditions. This article first presents a literature review to identify different constraints imposed on crew scheduling for offshore installations. Afterward, it presents a new Mixed-Integer Linear Model that satisfies these crew scheduling constraints and couples it with a scheduling approach using a Model Predictive Control scheme to include weather dynamics. The evaluation of this model shows reliable scheduling of persons/teams given weather-dependent operations. Compared to a conventionally assumed full staffing of vessels and the port, the model decreases the required crews by approximately 50%. Moreover, the proposed model shows good runtime behavior, obtaining optimal solutions for realistic scenarios in under an hour.

Offshore Structural Reliability Assessment by Probabilistic Procedures—A Review

Offshore installations must be built to resist fatigue as well as extreme forces caused by severe environmental conditions. The structural reliability analysis is the popular practise to assess a variety of natural waves determined by the long-term probability distribution of wave heights and corresponding periods on the site. In truth, however, these structures are subjected to arbitrary wave-induced forces in the open ocean. Hence, it is much more reasonable to account for the changed loading characteristics by determining the probabilistic characteristics of the random loads and outcomes responses. The key challenges are uncertainties and the non-linearity of Morison’s drag element, which results in non-Gaussian loading and response distributions. This study would analyze advances achieved to date in a comprehensive probabilistic review of offshore fixed jacket-type platforms.

Effects of a Wave Power Park with No-Take Zone on Decapod Abundance and Size

Past studies have revealed higher levels of biodiversity, total abundance, and size of individuals around offshore installations of renewable energy. This study investigated the effects of Lysekil wave power park (area 0.5 km2) on the abundance and carapace size of decapods at the Swedish west coast. For that purpose, decapods were caught with cages during four consecutive summers. Two types of cages were applied to catch a wide range of decapod species and sizes. The abundance and size of decapods were not significantly different within the wave power park and up to a distance of 360 m outside of it. The catch rate, i.e., number of decapods caught in 24 h, was not significantly different among sampling locations but revealed inter-annual variation for both cage types. The results suggest a limited role of the incidental no-take zone of the small Lysekil wave power park on the abundance and size of local decapods. However, neither were negative impacts, such as decreasing abundances or smaller carapace sizes, discovered. As an increase in the number of marine renewable energy production sites is foreseen, a scaled-up and larger study addressing MPA networks and other environmental interactions should be considered.

Decommissioning of Offshore Oil and Gas Facilities: A Comparative Study Between Malaysia Practices and International Standards

Regulations for decommissioning are bound by international and domestic regulations. There are numerous decommissioning concepts to choose from, such as complete or partial removal, structure severance options which leave behind shell mounds and drill cuttings. However, in several international regulations there appears to be little clarity and/or opposing ideologies. Malaysia and Thailand have accessible resources for decommissioning legislation or guidelines in South East Asia. Nevertheless, they are differences in the regulations of these countries regarding the legal framework, the technical, financial and environmental framework. In this study, the feasibility of existing framework in decommissioning process of offshore installations or structures in Malaysia was studied and compared with international practices. Decision matrix analysis was used to systematically identify, analyse, and rate the performance of relationships between sets of values and information. Moreover, the scale of decommissioning activities over the next years, the data and information obtained were analysed using descriptive statistics approach. The results indicated that Thailand had the best decommissioning regulations because they have strict regulation in decommissioning. Most of the regulations covering the technical section are similar within all countries studied. Finally, recommendations given are from the aspects of frameworks on in-situ full or partial decommissioning, clarity on liabilities and residual risk management, financial security, residual risk funds, workflow optimisation, information management system, and waste management.