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This series of messages is aimed at keeping you informed of the operations of NOPSA. Please let us know if you would like to be added to the distribution list PERSONNEL: · Four people have accepted positions as OHS inspectors and three of these will commence within the next two months. One of these will be located in the Melbourne office; the other two in Perth. · Melanie Jones has been appointed Executive Assistant to Team 3 for a period of six months whilst Jean Rowland is on secondment to Finance. · Tilda Lupton has resigned as our Human Resource Management Officer, and we are exploring options for the provision of HR services in the future. · Recent UK and Australian advertisements for OHS inspectors have closed, and the review process is underway. INDUSTRY MATTERS: · Rapid industry growth, particularly in the drilling field and new large projects, is high-lighting issues relating to skill shortages. This is an area that NOPSA will be looking at in the future. · Some safety case submissions are poorly planned, incomplete and are being submitted too late to allow for the regulatory period for assessment. NOPSA is working hard to accommodate this, however, this has lead to project delays in some cases, and may do so in the future. STAKEHOLDER RELATIONS: · A meeting with the APPEA HSO subcommittee was held on 28 September. Two national programmes were agreed, focusing on lifting operations and facility integrity. Similar meetings will be held with other stakeholders including IADC and IMCA. · IMCA has written to NOPSA to raise concerns regarding the decision-making processes for construction, diving, and accommodation-type vessels, and the requirements for Safety Cases for these vessels when engaged in different types of operation. NOPSA is responding to IMCA’s concerns. Further guidance will be placed on the NOPSA website. · A further industry workshop on the above issues and the NOPSA Enforcement Management Model (EMM) is planned for Nov 16. · A regular teleconference between NOPSA and various Designated Authorities, (DAs) was held in early September to discuss issues of mutual interest. Topics noted were: - the ongoing discussion of responsibility for assessment of technical integrity issues for pipelines; - ongoing proposals to revoke certain prescriptive clauses from the ‘Schedule of Specific Requirements’; - status of the various State/NT P(SL)A legislation and amendments. WORKFORCE: · Four training courses for offshore petroleum HSRs are now accredited by NOPSA. The training providers for these courses are: · IFAP ; · Unity Training; and · Training and Safety Consultants (TASC). These organisations are all located in WA although the organisations are able, in principle, to offer their courses at any location. NOPSA continues to work with two potential training providers located in Victoria. · NOPSA makes it their business to involve HSRs in incident investigations, and have found it to be very beneficial. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: · NOPSA’s Annual Report and the Corporate Plan are about to be presented to the Minister for approval. Tabling and public release are expected in mid-October and copies will be available from the NOPSA website at that time. Download NOPSA Annual Report 2004-05 Download NOPSA Corporate Plan 2005-08 · A NOPSA Board meeting was held on 7 & 8 September 2005. The Board discussed the proposed HSR Forum scheduled for early 2006 and the adequacy and soundness of NOPSA’s Enforcement Management Model, Safety Case Assessment and Planned Inspection core processes. The next meeting will be in Perth on the 23rd of November 2005. CONFERENCES: · The APPEA and NOPSA two-day offshore health and safety conference will be held in Perth in 2006. The event is scheduled to align with the March 2006 meeting of DrillSafe. A formal call for papers will be issued in due course, however, persons wishing to submit papers are invited to contact Ray Wells to discuss their proposals. NOPSA particularly welcomes persons offering to present papers at both this event and “Safety in Action”. (see below) · There is to be a one-day stream on safety in the offshore petroleum industry at the “Safety in Action” Conference. This event runs from 16 to 18 May 2006, and the offshore petroleum stream will be on Day 2. The call for papers for this event can be found on the “Safety in Action” Conference website. Again, persons wishing to submit papers related to offshore safety are invited to contact Ray Wells to discuss their proposals. · Paul Finnigan gave a presentation at the recent WA DoIR ‘Open Day’ in Fremantle on the first nine months of NOPSA operations. · Peter Harris gave a joint presentation with Jack McGee of Ensco Australia on Co-operative Regulation at Drillsafe. The presentation focused on the need for open communication between the regulator and operator to clarify the requirements of the legislation before safety cases arrive for assessment as this eases the assessment burden on both the applicant and regulator. · Paul Finnigan chaired a number of sessions at the inaugural SPE Asia-Pacific Health, Safety & Environment Conference & Exhibition in Kuala Lumpur – 19 to 21 September. The event was attended by over 600 delegates from the region, and beyond. PROCESS DEVELOPMENT: · A first release of the Authority’s Quality Management System has been implemented for the core regulatory processes. INTERNATIONAL: · Paul Finnigan met with officials from the new Malaysian Offshore Safety Division to discuss areas of mutual interest, including the new regulatory regimes in both countries. They have expressed an interest in visiting Australia to compare experience in offshore regulatory matters. · The annual meeting of the International Regulators Forum was held in Scotland 20 to 23 September. Australia was represented by Sue Kruse, Manager of the Safety and Security Section in DITR and John Clegg, CEO of NOPSA. Matters discussed included: - Performance Measures Project: Six of the eight countries have submitted incident data for 2004. Further work is needed before comparative data can be published; - Lifting Operations Project: A pilot is underway in the UK prior to international rollout in September 2006. The Oil and Gas Producers (OGP) is preparing an international standard in support of the project. - Drilling Issues Project: It was agreed to set up a working group to review safety-related issues associated with matters such as managed pressure drilling, use of dry BoPs, and high temperature high pressure wells. Ted Kirkbride is the NOPSA representative. - Human Factors: UK, Netherlands and Australia are to form a working group to identify and take forward issues relating to Human Factors. Andrew Chandran is the NOPSA representative. - Hurricane Katrina: The USA reviewed the significant impact of, and lessons learned from, the hurricane on Gulf of Mexico petroleum facilities. This is a pertinent reminder to operators on the NW Shelf to ensure their cyclone preparedness plans are appropriate. MOUs: · A Memorandum of Understanding between EnergySafe Victoria and NOPSA was recently signed and is available on the NOPSA website. Victorian DPI and Workcover MOUs have also recently been posted on the NOPSA website. OVERVIEW OF OPERATIONS FOR THE THIRD QUARTER 2005: Incidents and Complaints: · During the third quarter there were: - 30 notified incidents – an improvement of approximately 25% from the second quarter of 2005; and - 5 complaints - an improvement of almost 50% from the previous quarter. · Of the 30 incidents, 15 were dangerous occurrences, 3 were fires, and 9 resulted in injury to workers. 8 of the incidents related to lifting operations and dropped objects, while 5 were reported gas or fluid releases. NOPSA investigated 2 high potential incidents, both of which involved handling tubulars on drilling rigs. · NOPSA was made aware of 2 electrical fires on an accommodation vessel whilst en-route to a fixed platform. The incidents are being investigated by the ATSB and will be followed up by NOPSA. · On a positive note, NOPSA notes the involvement of Diamond Offshore in providing medical assistance and transport to an injured commercial fisherman stung by a marine stinger. Enforcement · 1 Prohibition Notice and 6 Improvement Notices were issued during the quarter. One Improvement Notice related to manning levels, another to asset integrity. Other enforcement issues included unsafe work practices, overriding safety devices, exposure to excessive noise, competency failure and failure to provide adequate supervision. Inspections · There were 10 inspections of offshore facilities during the quarter. Common Themes · The themes of concern identified from incidents, complaints and inspections in this quarter continue to reinforce those identified in previous quarters. They are: - poor workplace risk assessments; - inadequate supervision and/or training; - facility integrity/significant maintenance backlogs; and - issues to do with mechanical handling and lifting operations. Safety Case Assessment · 28 Safety Cases (SC) were assessed during the quarter - more than double the number assessed during the previous quarter. 1 Pipeline Safety Management Plan (PSMP) was assessed during this quarter, and 3 Diving Safety Management Plans (DSMP). · As of the end of September, there were 12 Safety Cases and 2 Pipeline Safety Management Plans being assessed. Past issues of this newsletter are available from the NOPSA website at: |
