On 27 July, NOPSEMA invited Industry representatives to attend a Crane Safety Workshop to discuss trends observed in recent investigations and notifications of dangerous occurrences reported by duty holders. Safer Together initiatives were among those identified at the Workshop as an important component of maintaining safe offshore crane operations.
Prior to the Workshop, NOPSEMA released a Discussion Paper – Improving Offshore Crane Safety. The following items were identified in this paper as a context for the Workshop discussion:
- Within Australian Commonwealth waters there are 67 offshore pedestal cranes in operation on 35 permanently installed production facilities. Additionally, there are several other types of cranes and hoists on facilities as well as a fluctuating number of mobile drilling and vessel facilities fitted with large cranes.
- In the period 1 July 2020 to 20 May 2021, NOPSEMA recorded 29 crane-related notifications of dangerous occurrences from duty holders. This was a significant increase in notifications from previous years and many of these incidents were common across duty holders.
- Based on the observed trends in degraded crane safety, NOPSEMA has issued a Safety Bulletin - Safe Operation of Cranes with Reduced Capacity.
The following Safer Together initiatives were identified as an important component of maintaining safe offshore crane operations:
- Learning Event Bulletins are a tool that can be used to share lessons learnt from incidents and near misses involving offshore cranes.
- The Common Industry Competencies Specification provides a platform for communicating standardised competency requirements for offshore crane operation, inspection and maintenance. NOPSEMA have also published a Guidance Note – Crane Operator Competence.
In addition to the initiatives identified above, members of the Offshore workforce can stay up to date with latest safety developments by subscribing to the Safer Together News Bulletin and following our social media channels. In May 2021, our News Bulletin featured an article about the Step Change in Safety (UK) Offshore Lifting Campaign.
In the coming months NOPSEMA will use the key findings from the workshop and collaborate with industry to provide guidance on crane operations in the offshore petroleum industry.
Click here to view the presentation slides presented at the workshop.