Offshore staff
LONDON – Industry association Oil & Gas UK has welcomed a report by Britain’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on the management of ageing and life extension of offshore infrastructure.
The report details the HSE’s progress with its Key Programme (KP) 4 inspection campaign and highlights how duty holders of UK offshore installations are managing asset ageing and extended use beyond the facilities’ designated lifespan.
Oil & Gas UK’s health and safety policy manager Bob Lauder said: “Mature assets are not necessarily less safe – they’re just older. With the right management approach, ageing infrastructure can be maintained to be operated safely and effectively well beyond its originally conceived service life.
“This latest report from HSE highlights a number of very positive findings with regards to good practice identified during its inspections. …In early 2011, the oil and gas industry, in collaboration with HSE, began a program to direct additional attention and effort to asset ageing and life extension.
“Oil & Gas UK produced industry guidance and formed an industry steering group comprising topic experts from a cross-section of the industry and HSE managers. There are now two additional technical work groups; one focusing on electrical, controls and instrumentation and the other on floating production installations.
“The HSE report does also identify some areas where industry needs to retain focus in order to ensure long-term plans are in place to anticipate and manage the effects of equipment degradation in the future, and to increase workforce involvement in the management of ageing and life extension. The industry has already identified these findings and work is well under way to tackle these issues directly.”
11/07/2012
