Improving safety of DP operations: learning from accidents and incidents during offshore loading operations

Abstract

The risk caused by DP vessels in offshore marine operations is not negligible, due to wide applications of DP vessels in complex marine operations, and the sharp increase of DP vessel population. The DP accidents/incidents on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) that have occurred after 2000 indicate a need for improving safety of DP operations, which calls for new risk reduction measures. The focus of this paper is particularly on the offshore loading operations with DP shuttle tanker in offloading from Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels on the NCS, but the results may be relevant also for other types of DP vessels in offshore oil and gas operations. In the paper, Man, Technology and Organization (MTO) analysis is applied to investigate the causes and barrier failures of nine reported accidents/incidents occurring over a 16-year period (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015). MTO is based on three methods, including structured analysis by use of an event-and cause-diagram, change analysis by describing how events have deviated from earlier events or common practice, and barrier analysis by identifying technological and administrative barriers which have failed or are missing. The results are categorized into technical failures, human failures, organizational failures, as well as a combination of failures. The main finding is that the majority of the accidents are caused by the combination of technical, human and organizational failures. Critical root causes, results of change analysis and barrier analysis, and combination of failures are focused on in the discussion. Recommendations of potential safety improvements are made on the aspects of the assessment of the actual system function, barrier management for marine systems, risk information to support different decision-makings, and the development of an on-line risk monitoring and decision supporting system.

Revealing system variability in offshore service operations through systemic hazard analysis

“…The reviewed literature focuses on collision (ship-toship, shop-to-turbine), reliability issues with technology (DP, gangway, and other systems), and human factors (Presencia and Shafiee, 2018;Dong et al, 2017;Rollenhagen, 1997;Sklet, 2006;Rokseth et al, 2017;SgurrEnergy, 2014). The used hazard analysis mainly followed a conventional, nonsystemic approach where individual hazards or scenarios are considered in isolation.…”

“…As any safety-critical system, SOVs comply with international and national safety standards during vessel design, construction, and operation (Grace and Lee, 2017). The latter is "managed by vessel operators as part of their safety management system" (IMCA, 2015).…”

Systemic hazard analysis of offshore service operations

“…(shuttle tankers) (Dong et al, 2017). The analysis used the method of Man, Technology and Organisation (MTO) (Rollenhagen, 88 1997;Sklet, 2006).…”

Improvements in rules and regulations to support sensemaking in safety-critical maritime operations

“…Searching for literature on design causes of accidents in the maritime sector, we found (Mišković et al 2018) in addition to Rothblum (2000), Chauvin et al (2013) and Dong et al (2017). In addition, we found a general article discussing the contribution of design to accidents, Kinnersley et al (2007).…”

“…In Dong et al (2017) the authors performed an analysis of dynamic positioning system accidents based on 9 accident reports from the period 2000-2015. The three main risk influencing factors mentioned in the reports were Shuttle Tanker positioning/ control system, organisation of work (as procedures, training) and crew competence.…”