The latest requirements for rig inspections set forth by the major offshore regulatory agencies can be summed up as:
The duty holder must do everything practicable to assure that a rig is fit for purpose and can be operated safely and without causing major harm to the people, the environment and the equipment.
These requirements make the duty holder ultimately responsible for health, safety and environmental issues caused by an incident on a rig. In order to satisfy this more rigorous duty holder responsibility, an effective a rig inspection has become an even more critical element of any rig uptake process. An effective rig survey has to answer the question –
Is this rig capable of executing my drilling program without incidents that would result in harm to the people, environment, or equipment, as well as downtime that will cost me time and money?
Answering this question requires us to go well beyond a traditional rig survey that attempts to determine only if the equipment is in good condition, and will stay that way for the duration of a drilling program.
However, getting to the right answer has become more difficult, as late generation rigs are no longer a collection of independent tools. Rather, they are complex machines made of highly integrated hardware and software systems. In other words, rigs are systems (that are, in turn, composed of systems), and we can’t ensure that they are safe and reliable unless we inspect them as such.
These complex integrated machines however are usually inspected as if they’re a collection of individual components: a top drive, derrick, crown block, BOP… and the list goes on. While this style of inspection will tell us if the equipment meets its own specific requirements, it doesn’t necessarily tell us if the equipment works together as a complex machine to safely execute the drilling campaign.
A more effective rig inspection process that takes into account the operation of the equipment as an integrated system is necessary to fully evaluate the rig, evaluate the risks and answer the question posed above. This integrated system approach starts with understanding how the system is intended to function as a whole given the user and regulatory requirements under which it will operate. Only then can a fit-for-purpose rig inspection process be developed to ensure the equipment is capable of working reliably together as an integrated system.
The design of the fit-for-purpose rig inspection process should start with:
- Understanding the operation of the entire rig as a single complex machine designed to drill and complete a well.
- Requirements set forth in established class notations and international standards and guidance for safety, systems engineering, and integrated control systems
- The fundamental principles of the major offshore regulatory regimes
- Best practices for integrated systems configuration management and network security
Once this is complete, the rig inspection process should be further tailored to accommodate:
- The specific regulatory requirements at the location of the drilling campaign
- The unique performance and safety requirements of both the owner and the duty holder
More effective rig inspections are a key component to meeting the duty holder requirements. Implementing fit-for-purpose integrated systems based rig inspection, designed around the requirements specific to your drilling program can provide the additional assurances that the rig is in fact able to execute your drilling program without incidents that lead to the costs associated with harm and downtime.