S A F E T Y M AT T E R S
In the summer of 2013, an offshore oil and gas operator
needed to isolate a large diameter subsea pipeline. Although
the company had performed basically the same operation on the same
line just a few years earlier – utilizing SmartPlug® isolation technology
to double block and seal the line – this was not a simple case of
procedural “copy and paste.”
Following recent catastrophic events, operators have become even
more conscious of process safety risk, gaining a heightened sensitivity to
low-frequency, high-potential consequence operations. And as a tribute
to an industry in constant search of safer operations, the mindset has
shifted toward a more customized and comprehensive approach, even for
routine maintenance.
It’s not just operators that have changed their outlook in recent years.
Pipeline service companies are taking a new approach to how they do
business, as well. Service companies have been traditionally very tool or
singular service-centric. They know hot tapping or pigging, Magnetic
Flux Leakage (MFL) or hydrostatic testing. Ask them about inline
inspection or cutter repair, and they could write a white paper. But ask
them to leverage their expertise to create a well-rounded risk-mitigation
plan, and they’d likely tell you that wasn’t in their wheelhouse.
This operation was going to break tradition. This time, hazard
identification, risk assessment, and Hazard and Operability review
(HAZOP) meetings were no longer the other guy’s job. This time,
big-picture risk was everyone’s job.
T.D. Williamson (TDW), the service company that provides
Seeing All the
PIECES
“The P&ID diagrams are
highly technical, so learning
how to read them is like
learning a different language.
Without that understanding,
we can’t effectively engage
in high-level risk discussions.
We’d be too tool-centric and
not environment-centric.”
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