Mars Risk Management Program
Authors: Curole Michael A. 
Published: October 2008

A comprehensive Risk Management Plan was developed and undertaken for the Mars TLP Project. This paper describes the goals, scope, methodology, execution details, successes, and lessons learned, of that Risk Management Program. This program represented the most comprehensive program everundertaken by Shell Deepwater Development Inc. for an offshore development. The program is also unique in that all components were executed within the Mars Project Team.

This paper will provide a complete guide on how a successful Risk Management Program may be implemented on a large, highly technical, multi-disciplined project. It should provide Project Managers with a model to augment, modify or create their own Risk Management Program on their projects. The program will be covered in it's entirety from pre-project approval to project completion.

The paper will review the significant input the Mars Risk Management Program had on the project. The paper will conclude that by following several keys, significant risk mitigation can be accomplished on a major project without schedule impact, and minimal capital cost.

The keys which will be listed as critical are:Management commitment to the program.Dedicated engineering resources located within the project team.A cost-benefit approach to Risk Management.Program initiation coincident with project initiation.

Risk Management of a very high cost investment is considered a very high priority by today's corporate leadership.

Introduction

The Mars Tension Leg Platform (TLP) represented a significant investment for Shell Offshore Inc. Recognizing the magnitude of this investment, Shell Offshore Inc.'s Management elected to approach Hazard Risk Management differently than it had on any previous major investment. Theyassigned a full time engineer to the design team and charged the engineer with developing and implementing a Hazard Risk Management Program for Mars. This paper reviews that program from initiation to completion and gives recommendations for future similar projects.

Risk Management Goals: The first effort of the program was to develop a set of Risk Management Goals. These were developed by the Mars Risk Management Engineer based on his experience, Shell Offshore's prescriptive safety guidelines, recommendations arising from the Lord Cullen report of theNorth Sea Piper Alpha disaster, and a Loss Control Study conducted for the Auger TLP. The Mars Risk Management Program Goals are presented and elaborated on below.

1. Provide a facility as free from the conditions which cause human error as prudent. Human error has caused or allowed for escalation of many (if not most) of the majorindustrial disasters of our time. The list includes Piper Alpha, Phillips Baytown, Three Mile Island, Chernoble, and many others. "Human error is probably the major contributor to loss of life, injury to personnel and property damage in the chemical Processing Industry". 1 Internal corporate data and industry data also show that a significant number of small work accidents are also caused by human error. The human and monetary cost of these small work accident on a cumulative basis is significant. The goal of the Human Error reduction program was to minimize not only catastrophic loss, but also small work loss.