THE International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has called on the offshore industry to report all incidents involving dynamic positioning (DP) station-keeping as part of a wider drive to enhance ship-related safety.
In the latest (17th) annual survey, which covers 2006, a total of 60 reports on station-keeping incidents were received at IMCA, of which 59 are analysed. Of these, 37 were categorised as incidents, 10 as undesired events, one as downtime, five as near misses and six as hazard observations.
As in the previous year, offshore loading and dive support reported the most incidents. These were closely followed by pipelay and drilling.
However, IMCA says these figures are more indicative of the number of vessels reporting rather than the actual number of incidents experienced by particular vessel types.
Vessel type incidents included: crane, 3; dive support, 13; drilling, 9; offshore loading, 17; pipelay, 10; rock dumping, 1, and ROV, 6. Reference systems and human error have the largest percentages as the main cause for incidents, with power generation being the most significant other area. Human error accounted for 22% and power generation 17% while, for example, 11% were environment-related, 8% was electrical and 6% thruster.
Jane Bugler, IMCA’s technical director, said the industry learned by experience and that sharing experience remained key to improving safety levels.
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