The UK’s safety regulator, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), has issued a safety notice about a growing number of collisions between offshore vessels and offshore installations
The industry regulator said it has identified an increase in the number of incidents of attendant ships colliding with offshore oil and gas and renewable energy structures such as wind turbines. It said failure of navigational watch processes and systems is resulting in collisions or risk of collisions.
“Incidents are occurring because personnel who are responsible for watchkeeping and the safe navigation of a vessel are being distracted with non-navigational tasks, said the HSE. It said they are also occurring because situational awareness is not being maintained at all times; and because there is insufficient communication between all members of a bridge team.
“Duty holders and vessel operators should have in place processes and systems, as part of a wider safe system of work, to ensure that, during connected activities, vessels are operated in a way that ensures, so far as is reasonably practicable, the safety of people on nearby installations,” said the HSE, which cited a number of incidents in the last five years, all involving vessels close to offshore installations or an activity connected with an offshore windfarm, in the last five years.
In the first incident, a platform supply vessel (PSV) was requested to enter the 500-m zone of a fixed installation. The chief officer and a watchkeeping officer were on the bridge. Pre-entry checklists were completed and the chief officer began manoeuvring the vessel towards the 500 m zone. The chief officer allowed the speed of the vessel to increase above the normal rate and the watchkeeping officer was engaged in other tasks. He made attempts to control the movement of the vessel, during which time it struck the leg of the installation.
In case two, a multi-role emergency response and rescue vessel (ERRV) was standing-by outside the 500-m zone of a jack-up drilling installation. The master had just handed over to the officer of the watch (OOW). It was dark, the weather was good, and there was a lookout on the bridge. The OOW became engaged in non-navigational tasks, including writing minutes to a recent meeting and testing bridge radios. The lookout asked the OOW if he could use the bridge computer and was given permission to do so. Neither the OOW nor the lookout noticed that a change in environmental conditions meant the vessel was now drifting towards the jack-up. A PSV was alongside the jack-up and raised concern that the ERRV had entered the 500-m zone and was on a collision course with the installation. The jack-up control room attempted to call the ERRV and instructed them to leave the zone. The ERRV collided with one of the legs of the jack-up.
