U.K. OPERATORS COMPLETE SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS

U.K. operators have completed a massive program of safety improvements on all their offshore installations, ahead of a Health & Safety Executive (HSE) deadline. U.K. Offshore Operators Association (Ukooa) said the cost of meeting new U.K. offshore regulations totaled 5 billion ($7.5 billion) for 219 offshore installations. The safety revisions followed a public inquiry into the 1988 Piper Alpha platform blast and required operators to undertake some major engineering feats in bringing older

Dec. 4, 1995

3 min read

U.K. operators have completed a massive program of safety improvements on all their offshore installations, ahead of a Health & Safety Executive (HSE) deadline.

U.K. Offshore Operators Association (Ukooa) said the cost of meeting new U.K. offshore regulations totaled 5 billion ($7.5 billion) for 219 offshore installations.

The safety revisions followed a public inquiry into the 1988 Piper Alpha platform blast and required operators to undertake some major engineering feats in bringing older platforms in line with tougher regulations (OGJ, Feb. 14, 1994, p. 25).

SAFETY CASES

Operators had until Nov. 30 to provide HSE a safety case document outlining safety provisions for all their offshore installations and have each safety case accepted by HSE. No U.K. offshore installation can now be operated without an approved safety case.

"As a direct result of this huge investment in time, money and effort," said Ukooa, "there has been a 44% reduction in injury frequency from 1988-89 to 1993-94, and it has been esti- mated that the risk of a major disaster offshore has been reduced by 90%."

An HSE official said that in bringing 219 safety cases to approval, HSE issued notices requiring 22 major engineering changes to installations, with a further 694 lesser changes also demanded.

The official said 45% of the changes requested by HSE to safety cases related to engineering matters, 45% to hazard assessments, and 10% to safety management systems.

Ninety-three safety cases were granted for mobile installations, including 10 floating production units, while 126 were granted for fixed structures. HSE also approved four aban- donment safety cases, said the official, plus 19 design safety cases for installations under development.

REQUIREMENTS

Allan Sefton, HSE's offshore safety division director of operations, said each safety case had to demonstrate an effective health and safety management system for the installation. In addition, for each safety case, all major accident hazards had to be identified and controls put in place to reduce risks to personnel as far as is reasonably practicable.

"Many changes have been made to installations and the way they are managed," said Sefton. "These improvements focus on fire and explosion protection, emergency procedures, and reducing the effects of plant damage that could lead to major accidents by improved ways of working and better management.

"On many installations, these improvements have achieved high reductions in risk at low cost, but in other instances operators have had to incur very high expenditure. Most accepted safety cases also contain demanding improvement programs aimed at further reducing risks to offshore workers."