Offshore staff
LONDON – Engineering X – an international collaboration founded by the Royal Academy of Engineering and Lloyd’s Register Foundation – has awarded nearly £1 million ($1.25 million) in grants to six projects in the UK and elsewhere.
The projects are addressing the social, environmental, and engineering challenges of decommissioning offshore structures and ships.
Among those to benefit from the grants, which range in value from £50,000 to £200,000 ($62,000 to $249,000) are:
Safe and sustainable decommissioning of offshore structures taking into consideration the peculiarities of the ASEAN and South Asia regions. Led by: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Partners: R.L.Kalthia Ship Breaking(India), Newcastle University in Singapore, Liverpool John Moores University (UK), Insititut Teknologi Bandung (Indonesia), Sea Sentinels (Singapore), PetroVietnam University (Vietnam), Hanoi University of Science and Technology (Vietnam), Mahidol University (Thailand) The goal is to develop technical guidelines for safe and sustainable decommissioning processes and to set up safe and sustainable recycling and downstream waste management facilities for decommissioned offshore structures in ASEAN and South Asia.
The risks of structural failure of decommissioned offshore oil and gas installations worldwide. Led by Energy Institute (UK). Partners: Regional Maritime University (Ghana), University of Strathclyde (UK), SEIP 7 (Brazil), Liverpool John Moores University (UK) The aim is to investigate major accident risks associated with the loss of structural integrity of oil and gas platforms during decommissioning and assess whether adequate arrangements exist for managing these risks.
Establishing a global baseline and raising awareness to help deliver safety improvements. Led by University of Southampton (UK). Partners: Advisian (UK), University tec de Monterrey (Mexico), University of Teramo (Italy), NGO Shipbreaking Platform (Belgium) Development of an open access, graphical web-dashboard with associated evidential material and reports on the number, age and location of offshore structures and ships globally, the materials they contain, their legislative contexts, and who has ownership or other responsibilities.
According to William Powrie, Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Southampton and Chair of the board for the Engineering X program: “Achieving a safer end of engineered life for ships and offshore structures is a delicate balancing act…
“But the challenge of improving safety during decommissioning is not one that can be hidden by displacing the safety risks to parts of the world least able to manage them—the danger to human life, health and the environment arising from current practices is a global problem and is too high…
“All those with an interest or stake in any stage of the life cycle of ships and offshore structures must understand their role in the processes that give rise to the poor safety record of decommissioning generally. They must also acknowledge a shared responsibility to raise standards and to develop and adopt best practices to improve safety wherever these structures end their operational lives.”
07/03/2020
