Safety is an acquired taste, and we are still busy acquiring it

Formula 1 racing and the decommissioning of offshore assets may not be obvious bedfellows, but bear with me, and I’ll demonstrate why safety lessons from the former are very pertinent for the latter. Take last month’s Italian Grand Prix for example.

Lewis Hamilton was involved in an accident whereby the wheel of another car collided with his head. Miraculously he was uninjured, largely thanks to the HALO device, a titanium alloy ring that sits above the driver’s head. It’s the strongest part of the car, and can take the load of a London bus.

It is human nature to resist implementing more safety measures, something that’s particularly true of the F1 community. Prior to the HALO’s introduction, many drivers questioned its effectiveness, as the benefits were not immediately obvious. Max Verstappen said at the time that the HALO was “Abusing the DNA of the sport,” while fellow driver Kevin Magnussen was of the view that, “If you want to be safe then stay at home.” Even the Mercedes F1 team said the safety measure was “An acquired taste and we are still busy acquiring it.”

Despite the backlash, safety was openly given the highest priority. In a remarkable move of safety leadership, transparency and accountability, the Sporting and Safety Directors of the sport’s governing body, the FIA, held a press conference at the Hungary Grand Prix in 2017 where they detailed the motivation, risk assessment and plans for the implementation of the HALO.

During the 30-minute presentation – which immediately changed many of the driver’s opinions - the FIA explained how in the 21 accidents they analysed, (some of them fatal), it was concluded that HALO would have played a positive role in 19 of these. The detailed findings were shared with the public as well as with other racing series.

The resilience and positive safety culture demonstrated by the FIA is something that all organisations within major hazard industries can learn from. This self-same culture must be fostered by organisations engaged in safely decommissioning their offshore installations.

I would argue that as an asset moves toward decommissioning, there is never a more important time to deploy strong process leadership. As assets progress from cessation of production through to dismantlement, new major accident hazards may be introduced, whilst important safety barriers are simultaneously removed.

For instance, the breaking of containment may potentially expose hazard materials, and complex well plug & abandonment operations may carry additional risk. What’s more, the introduction of a greater number of contracting workforce who are unfamiliar with the asset contributes another layer of potential hazards and barrier removal. As helidecks and lifeboats are taken out of service, the emergency procedures in the event of an evacuation will have to change.

Thanks to the Herculean efforts of the FIA leadership, there are people alive today who may not have been without the adoption of the HALO. Is the process leadership and culture of your organisation similarly motivated and ready to address the process safety challenges presented by decommissioning?

Read the latest issue of the OGV Energy magazine HERE.