Implementation of Process Safety for Support Vessels for Exploration and Production (E&P) Activities At Petrobras in Brazil

Petrobras relies on a fleet of over 300 vessels to support the exploration and production of oil in Brazilian territorial waters. The fleet consists of vessels of various sizes, from Tug Supply vessels to Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Support vessels. These support vessels are designed to aid E&P rigs in wide range of activities, from simple refuelling units to specialized units responsible for oil well stimulation and seismic studies, diving vessels, ROV vessels, oil spill response vessels and anchor handling tug vessels. The entire fleet provides services to Petrobras through chartering contracts between shipping companies and Petrobras’ operational sectors. In 2012 these vessels were involved in 95 recorded accidents that did not fall under the category of occupational accidents, such as crashes, collisions, chemical spills (including oil and oil derivates), floods, fires and strandings. Aiming to reduce the occurrence of these events, Petrobras has established a group, formed from the operational sectors of the Health, Safety and the Environment (HSE), to implant the concepts of safety within those shipping companies providing support services to Petrobras. The application of these concepts on support vessels has required some adjustment, primarily in the classification of accidents.

Typically, a process accident is defined as the catastrophic release of chemical products and energy. In the field of maritime operations, the release of chemicals, especially oil derivatives, was also regarded as a process accident, where the release of energy is represented by collisions, crashes, groundings, fires and floods. After defining the various accident scenarios, the group used a historical register to identify near misses that could have resulted in an accident as defined above. Events identified as near misses were; propulsion system outages, navigation system outages, unauthorized approaches, risky navigation manoeuvres, flooding without damage and leaks contained within the vessel. As a result, proactive and reactive indicators were developed. The reactive indicators measure the relative occurrence of accidents and near misses. The proactive indicators measure efficiency in the carrying out of maintenance of critical equipment, commitment to critical training, conducting procedure compliance checks, conducting audits, commitment to action plans arising from audits, attendance to lectures and visits from  senior staff aboard vessels, etc.

In parallel to these measures, a plan of action containing series of minimum requirements was created to help implement safety procedures within shipping companies that provide services to Petrobras. This plan requires that shipping companies, among other measures, conduct a review of the risk analysis of their vessels with a focus to identifying critical equipment and procedures, developing a maintenance program for critical equipment, developing a training program for the workforce involved in critical procedures, developing a compliance program with the safety procedure, and so on. Shipping companies have committed to start this implementation plan by June 2013. Furthermore, the scope of onboard inspections has been reviewed by Petrobras as well as the scope of audits conducted of management systems and vessels belonging to those shipping companies. Monitoring compliance with the contract was standardized among different Operational Sectors, especially regarding the procedures for accident investigation and the tools for penalizing companies for breach of contractual obligations, especially those that lead to increased risk of accident. The process of hiring support vessels was also adjusted to consider the HSE performance of a shipping company as a technical criterion, when reviewing proposals. Petrobras has also maintained a quarterly seminar for sharing learned lessons and best practices within the management system.

This paper presents the detailed implementation of Process Safety procedures in maritime operations supporting exploration and production at Petrobras. The results obtained with this program and the lessons learned will be presented at future events.