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Safety Moment - SIMOPS Gas Venting

This document discusses the hazards of simultaneous operations (SIMOPS) on an unmanned wellhead platform and nearby drilling rig. It describes an incident where gas was vented from the wellhead platform during routine maintenance, and the gas cloud drifted over to the drilling rig due to lack of planning and communication for SIMOPS. Key learnings are the need to conduct risk assessments and communicate procedures for all activities during SIMOPS to avoid hazards on one installation impacting another.

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1K views7 pages

Safety Moment - SIMOPS Gas Venting

This document discusses the hazards of simultaneous operations (SIMOPS) on an unmanned wellhead platform and nearby drilling rig. It describes an incident where gas was vented from the wellhead platform during routine maintenance, and the gas cloud drifted over to the drilling rig due to lack of planning and communication for SIMOPS. Key learnings are the need to conduct risk assessments and communicate procedures for all activities during SIMOPS to avoid hazards on one installation impacting another.

Uploaded by

fareedfks
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Safety Moment

SIMOPS
(Simultaneous operations)
Scenario

You are in charge of an unmanned wellhead platform


A drilling rig will be coming alongside in a few months
to carry out simultaneous operations
What additional hazards might be introduced as a
result of the two installations working together?
What aspects of your operation might change as a
result of the two installations coming together?

DISCUSS

SIMOPS
Lets look at a real event

A normally unmanned wellhead


platform with a jack-up drill rig in
attendance Drill rig
Wellhead platform (WHP) normal vent
production and operations
Jack-up drill rig work over
operations in progress

An operator on the WHP was


routinely venting gas from a well
through the cold flare
WHP
What could happen?
DISCUSS

SIMOPS
What happened:
In this case, gas was cold-vented from the wellhead platform over the jack-up
On the WHP, a well had stopped
flowing and was shut-in
To restart the well an operator was
asked to vent the topsides gas from
the shut-in well this routine
procedure did not normally need a
Permit to Work.
The gas vent was located high on the
wellhead but close to the attending
jack-up
The jack-up OIM smelled gas,
notified the drill rig control room and
all hot-work was immediately
suspended and systems made safe

SIMOPS
Fortunately the gas did not find an ignition source, no harm occurred
and a potential major accident was prevented

What behaviours and steps could prevent this


from occurring?

DISCUSS

SIMOPS
Factors which led to this incident:
Risk assessment not included for all activities
Routine operations were progressed without considering the presence of the
jack-up drilling rig working over the installation
Simultaneous operations procedures were not adequately documented,
understood or observed
People were complacent in performing routine hazardous operations

Help and Advice


SIMOPS: Two or more of the following activities: production, drilling, completion,
workover, wireline (except routine operations) and major construction operations

During SIMOPS, it is vital that hazards are assessed and the joint safety needs are
considered for all operations to avoid a hazard on one installation having an impact
on the other(s)

Ensure effective communications are established between control of work


authorities

SIMOPS
Which of the 7Cs are involved in this safety alert?
Change management
Communication
Complacency
Control of work
Competence
Culture
Commitment

Did this presentation result in discussion that could lead to creating


another alert to share with industry? Please contact :
[email protected]

SIMOPS

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