News Cuttings
IADC North Sea Chapter awards recognize best in safety performance
The IADC North Sea Chapter (NSC) gathered for its Annual Safety Awards Ceremony on 22 April in Aberdeen.
NSC Co-Chairmen Ivor McBean of Diamond Offshore and Gary Holman of Awilco Drilling welcomed a large turnout to the event. Guest speakers were IADC President Jason McFarland and Steve Rae, Vice President QHSE, Archer.
“Everyone is aware of the extremely difficult times the industry is facing, and despite the challenges and uncertain future in terms of oil price and activity levels, the industry will continue to focus on the most important aspect of our business – the safety of our personnel,” Mr McBean said.
Mr Holman commented: “It is heartening to see the continued collaboration by our members in safety matters in workgroup meetings and with external bodies. This year has seen the chapter issue a number of publications which relate to safety in our industry.”
A number of awards were presented to companies and installations for their safety record over the past year. Awards for best safety performance in 2015 went to Noble Drilling and Ensco in the jackups category, to Stena Drilling in the floating rigs category and to Odfjell Drilling in platform drilling.
Chairman’s Awards, which recognized individual rigs and their crews that had the best safety performance in 2015, went to the Maersk Innovator, Maersk Drilling (jackup); Deepsea Atlantic, Odfjell Drilling (floating rig); and Dunbar, KCA Deutag (platform).
The Associate Member Award was presented to Blaze Manufacturing Solutions.
Funds raised during the evening will be donated to Macmillan Cancer Support and the UK Oil & Gas Chaplaincy Trust.
A special donation will be made to VSA by the Val Hood Award, which was established in honor of a former colleague.
IADC members facilitate well control seminar for Texas Railroad Commission
On 25 May, IADC members led an interactive well control orientation seminar in Austin, Texas, for more than 30 field operations staff from the Texas Railroad Commission (RRC). After working collaboratively on clarifications to the RRC’s Rule 13 with IADC’s subject matter experts – including Robert Urbanowski, Precision Drilling; Aaron Mueller, Independence Contract Drilling; and Katy Holst, Patterson-UTI – the RRC asked IADC to organize an introductory seminar on the basics of well control for their staff.
The purpose of Rule 13 is to protect fresh water and maintain well control. It initially included language that could negatively impact onshore contractors, where it would have meant the difference between a contractor moving ahead or idling a rig due to the costs of modifying equipment. The RRC issued clarifications to the rule to address these concerns in March.
The seminar was led by Randy Smith and Harris LaFleur with Smith Mason & Co and focused on well control concepts, technical aspects, equipment, pressure control and geology, among other topics.
