Offshore Platform Accidents,Regulations And Industry Standards
Authors: Visser R.C. 
Published: October 2008

Major offshore accidents receive a large amount of publicity and are instrumental in enacting new and/or revised industry standards and governmental regulations. The paper discusses several major accidents that have occurred during the past twenty-five years and the effect that these accidents have had on improving the reliability and safety of offshore operations.

Platform losses from hurricanes led to the development of the AH W 2A structural design standard and are currently providing the impetus for the development of an industry standard for the structural fit-for-purpose assessment of older platforms. Platform losses and damage caused by drilling blowouts, and by fires and explosionsin process facilities, has resulted in improved drilling procedures and regulations, improved subsurface safety valve requirements, the Minerals Management service inspection and compliance program and the API RP 14C process facility reliability standard. Accidents k the North Sea have led to regulatory requirements for platform risk management programs..

The implementation of these regulations and industry standards has resulted in an impressive enhancement of the reliability and safety of offshore operations. The offshore industry however,. has not been able to convince the public and local regulators that offshore operations are safe. It is rather ironic that the risk of flying on U.S. commercial jets with an average hull loss of 2 × 10−3 per year is acceptable, whereas the risk of loss of an offshore platform of 0.9x 10−3 per year is considered unacceptable and has led to moratoria on offshore drilling.

The paper also discusses the ongoing industry and regulatory agency efforts to further enhance the safety of offshore

INTRODUCTION

Scope

This discussion on the effect of offshore accidents on regulations and industry standards relates to operations involving fixed offshore platforms and facilities. Accidents involving mobile offshore drilling units are outside the scope of this paper.

Background

Until the late 1960's the integrity of the design and operational safety of offshore platform 3 was largely the responsibility of the owner-operators who used a variety of industry and in-house standards. Industry structural design standards were first introduced following the disastrous 1%4 and 1965 HiIda and Betsy hurricanes during which twenty-two platforms were destroyed.

During hurricane Andrew in 1992 nineteen platforms in federal waters were either destroyed or are no longer fit for- purpose. Most of these structures were pre-1%5 platforms and industry standards are now being developed for structural fit-for-purpose assessment of older platforms that have aged beyond their normal service life or that are under designed.

None of these hurricane associated incidents received much publicity outside the industry because no lives were lost and little pollution occurred. The was not the case, however, with two high visibility accidents that occurred in 1%9 and 1970. The Dos Cuadras platform A blowout offshore California in the Santa Barbara Channel and the Bay Marchand platform B fire in the Gulf of Mexico, focused the attention of the news media, and thus the public, on the real and perceived hazards of offshore