The Strength Of Safety Management Systems — A Reflection
By Colin Rice · Colin Rice Exploration Drilling Advisory · www.colinrice.co.za
I am one of the luckiest people in the exploration industry because I get to visit the drilling operations of a number of contractors in a variety of countries. I get to see shallow diamond core operations, deep coring operations, dual-tube reverse circulation and rotary percussion operations. Often the contractors are small to medium size companies, but I am lucky enough to also see drill sites run by some of the largest companies in the world.
On most occasions, the visits are safety or training related and despite the fact that some of the contractors are large, international companies and some are very small companies, I consistently see the same safety issues at all of them. The issues are not complex, they are fundamental inspection and maintenance issues that should be the very basis of the contractor’s safety management system. Why then are they overlooked? Why do these issues reoccur? I believe that there are three contributing factors:
the risk assessment, is poor and / or incomplete and as a consequence the contractor’s safety management system is flawed
many drillers and supervisors are not properly trained and,
manufacturers and suppliers do not provide the necessary instruction with new products that they launch
The basic building block of any safety management system is the identification of hazards and the assessment of associated risk. If this is flawed, then the safety management system will be flawed.
Over the next few issues, I would like to share some of my experiences related to the structure and effectiveness of drill site safety management systems and some of the inspection and maintenance deficiencies that I frequently see on drill sites.
I would like to start this series by looking again at wireline retrieval equipment and operations.
Wireline retrieval systems
In previous editions of DrillSafe I have written extensively about wireline retrieval equipment and operations and about some of the innovative modifications to retrieval equipment that have been introduced over the past few years. Through the introduction of these innovations, manufacturers have addressed some of the risks associated with wireline operations but there are several other risks that have not been addressed.
Let’s talk about overshots first.
Safety overshots (mainly the Longyear type or the MBI type) have become a standard on most drill sites and it seems that many contractors believe that by using a safety overshot they have taken care of all the risk associated with wireline operations - we are using a “safety” overshot and so all will be fine!!
Both makes of overshot mentioned above help in preventing the lifting dogs de-latching from the spearhead but that is the only risk that they address, there are other areas of risk that are always overlooked. All of these areas of risk are fully explained in the series on wireline retrieval and I am not going to rewrite what we have already published, please scroll to the series on wireline retrieval if you have not read it previously. I would however like to share with you some photographs of wireline retrieval equipment that illustrate how poor standards of inspection and maintenance of these critical components can be.
Once you have looked at the photographs, ask yourself; “how could this be allowed to happen?” Where did the contractor (and the mining company) go wrong?
More importantly, we need to ask ourselves; “how do I make sure that similar things never occur on my drill sites?
The answers to all of these questions are simple:
How could this be allowed to happen? It happens because no one on site fully understands the risk associated with the equipment and the use of the equipment – it happens because the risk assessment is incomplete and as a consequence, inspection checklists are poor and maintenance procedures are non-existent.
Where did the contractor (and the mining company) go wrong? The contractor prepared a poor quality, incomplete risk assessment and the mining company did not identify that the risk assessment was poor. Seldom, in my experience, does a mining company properly interrogate the contractor’s risk assessment.
How do you make sure that similar things never occur on your drill sites?
Check and check again that your risk assessment is complete – ensure that your risk assessment is correctly structured and then review it again,
Use resources like DrillSafe to add further detail to your risk assessment.
Use your risk assessment as it was intended – turn the controls that you identify into properly developed procedures on site.
A standard overshot with the jar staff welded to the overshot head.
This cable swivel assembly has clearly not been greased for a considerable time - note the gap between the eye and the base of the assembly indicating that the bearing has started to collapse or the lock nut has started to loosen.
Cable swivel assemblies are very seldom greased - frequently, the grease nipple is missing or so clogged with drilled cutting.
The lock-nut on the top of the jar staff has broken off. Fortunately this happened downhole so no one was injured!
No need to say anything!
Guide rollers on a spooling device!. How long have these rollers been seized for?
This is not a joke! This wireline winch was being used on a drilling project.