The Obama administration on Thursday unveiled new oil well control rules to prevent the kind of blowout that happened six years ago on a BP Plc rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement announced the finalized regulations, which include more stringent design requirements and operational procedures for… Continue Reading »
Royal Navy bomb disposal team detonated a WWII torpedo found during a routine seabed survey in Scapa Flow, Orkney. The torpedo is likely to have been one of those fired at HMS Royal Oak, as the battleship lay at anchor in Scapa Flow in 1939, Royal Navy wrote. The attack by the German U-boat U47 sank the… Continue Reading »
The Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) reports it is “troubled” that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) did not convene a small business advocacy review panel for upstream oil and gas when it issued its long-awaited final rule on occupational exposure to crystalline silica. The Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA) requires… Continue Reading »
Two unexploded bombs have been discovered at the E.ON-operated Rampion offshore wind farm. The bombs, possibly from WWII, were discovered during the unexploded ordnance (UXO) surveys at the wind farm site off the Sussex coast, UK. The items have been found within close vicinity of each other within the offshore site. “Safety remains our highest… Continue Reading »
BP and Norway’s Statoil will withdraw staff from two gas plants in Algeria after an attack by militants on one of the sites in the North African country, the companies said on Monday. Militants attacked the In Salah gas plant, operated with state-owned Sonatrach, with rockets on Friday, causing no casualties or damage. Al Qaeda’s… Continue Reading »
Subsea engineering and training company, Jee, will host a free-to-attend offshore decommissioning webinar on April 13 2016. The webinar, titled ‘Innovation and efficiency in decommissioning’ will be presented by Head of Late Life, Graham Wilson. It will discuss how decommissioning can be done differently to realise cost savings and environmental and safety benefits. “The growing… Continue Reading »
DNV GL, Gard and The Swedish Club have been investigating a rising number of anchor losses reported over the last several years. Namely, the root cause of many groundings and collisions, lost anchors are among the top five reasons for claims costs. Based on an analysis of damage cases involving anchor and anchor chain losses,… Continue Reading »
Royal Navy bomb disposal team has found a Second World War German torpedo at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys on March 01, 2016. The torpedo was found on the seabed after a routine sonar survey on behalf of Orkney Islands Council. It was also filmed using an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV). Footage showed a seven-meter long suspected… Continue Reading »
The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has published a revised version of ‘Guidance on wire rope integrity management for vessels in the offshore industry’ (IMCA SEL 022 Rev. 2/IMCA M 194 Rev. 2). This document provides guidance on the necessary elements of an integrity management system required to achieve an acceptable level of ongoing safety… Continue Reading »
The most-thorough survey into the size and shape of the North Sea workforce has found that UK male offshore workers are bigger than the country’s typical male and even larger than the average American male. The findings, which are a result of a joint project between Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University and Oil & Gas UK,… Continue Reading »
