Real-time dashboard integrates data across systems to quantify, visualize barrier degradation

By Garrett Reinert, Valaris

Process safety systems can look solid on paper. Barrier models are well defined, major accident hazards are clearly documented, and assurance activities are mapped out in detail. Yet, despite all that structure, it is easy for real barrier performance to become invisible once someone steps away from formal reviews and onto the deck.

The issue is rarely intent. Most organizations are genuinely trying to manage major accident risk responsibly. The problem is that the information people rely on to assure barriers is spread across too many systems, reviewed too infrequently and often interpreted in isolation. Maintenance data lives in one place, training and competency in another, drills and operational verifications somewhere else. Each of those tells part of the story, but none of them on their own answers the question that matters during operations: Are our barriers holding up right now and are they keeping our people and assets safe?

In assurance discussions, a barrier can be considered “green” because the model said it should be, even while several small but unrelated signals were already pointing in the opposite direction. Individually, those signals didn’t look significant. Taken together, however, they were telling us something important – and we could be missing it.

That experience, repeated often enough, is what ultimately led to the development of the Valaris BarrierPulse. The goal was not to introduce another assurance framework or add more reporting. Rather, it was to take the data the organization already had, consolidate it and make it operationally useful to teams on the rigs.

Rather than asking people to review more spreadsheets or dashboards, the focus was on integration. Valaris BarrierPulse brings together assurance data from maintenance and inspections, training and competency systems, and operational verifications and drills, and aligns all of that information directly to the defined Major Accident Events. Today, it integrates over 1 million data points across Valaris’ fleet. The volume of data is not the point, however – the value is in how that data is structured and interpreted.

The issue being addressed was simple: If barriers degrade gradually, as they almost always do, we needed a way to see that degradation early, understand what was driving it, and respond before the risk reached an unacceptable or dangerous level. More data doesn’t improve safety if no one can see in real time what actually matters.

Moving from barrier design to barrier performance

Traditional barrier models are effective at defining intent. They describe what should be in place and how systems are supposed to function. What they don’t do particularly well is reflect how those systems behave over time under real operating conditions.

In reality, barriers rarely fail suddenly. They weaken incrementally over time. Maintenance gets deferred. Verification activities slip due to operational priorities. Competency gaps emerge as crews rotate and change. None of these issues on their own necessarily trigger alarms, but together they can erode the integrity of the barrier set.

What was needed was a way to see those weak signals together, rather than treating them as separate assurance issues managed by different functions and each one in isolation from the other.

Valaris BarrierPulse was designed to provide that view. It presents barrier performance across people, plant and process in a single operational picture, aligned directly to each Major Accident Event. Users can move quickly from a fleet-level overview to rig-specific detail and then down to the individual elements driving degradation.

The intent is not to replace professional judgment but to support it with real-time data to provide a clearer understanding of operational system health.

Visualizing barrier condition in real time

At a practical level, Valaris BarrierPulse shows the current condition of barriers in a way that is easy to interpret during normal operations. For each Major Accident Event, users can see a concise status summary, supported by a breakdown of contributing elements across people, plant and process.

Color-coded indicators highlight where barriers are healthy, where early degradation is emerging and where conditions require attention. Importantly, the system allows users to trace those indicators back to the underlying drivers, whether that is an overdue inspection, a gap in employee readiness or training, or a missed verification activity.

This changes the nature of assurance conversations. Instead of debating whether a risk is theoretical or relying on lagging indicators, teams can focus on what has degraded, why it matters, and what action is appropriate to address the degradation to achieve the objective of maintaining safe operations.

Quantifying degradation

One of the more challenging aspects of barrier management is recognizing that not all degradation carries the same risk. A single overdue task may not be critical, while the loss of a higher-order safeguard may warrant immediate intervention.

To address this, Valaris BarrierPulse incorporates a newly developed Barrier Erosion Index (BEI). The BEI reflects degradation value based on the relative importance of individual barrier elements. As contributing factors erode, the index increases in line with the assigned weighting of the relevant safe operation elements.

This approach mirrors how risk actually develops offshore. It avoids treating barriers as either “present” or “failed.” Instead, it provides a more realistic and dynamic picture of how integrity changes over time.

The BEI also underpins escalation. As degradation progresses, notification thresholds trigger increased visibility, from rig leadership to shore-based teams and, where necessary, senior and executive management. The intent is not to create alarm but to raise active and dynamic awareness to ensure proper oversight before control is potentially lost.

Linking assurance to action

A recurring weakness in many assurance systems is the disconnect between identifying issues and tracking what was done about them. In practice, mitigations are often discussed in meetings and documented elsewhere, and they lose visibility over time.

Valaris BarrierPulse was deliberately designed to close that loop. When degradation is identified, mitigations can be linked directly to the relevant barrier elements. This provides a transparent record of what action was taken, when it was implemented and how the barrier condition responded.

Over time, this also allows patterns to emerge. Repeated degradation drivers become visible, making it easier to target systemic issues rather than treating each occurrence as an isolated problem.

Fleet-level insight without losing operational context

From a leadership perspective, one of the benefits of Valaris BarrierPulse is the ability to see risk trends across a global fleet without relying on anecdotal updates or retrospective reviews.

At a glance, it is possible to identify rigs experiencing sustained barrier degradation, Major Accident Events that require closer attention, and areas where mitigations are accumulating without corresponding improvement. At the same time, rig teams retain access to the detail they need to manage risk locally. The system was built to support decision making at multiple levels, not to centralize control or replace local ownership of safety.

Supporting regulatory confidence

Regulatory expectations around barrier management continue to evolve, with increasing emphasis on demonstrating ongoing effectiveness rather than periodic compliance. Valaris BarrierPulse provides a consistent, auditable view of barrier condition over time, supported by active and traceable data and documented mitigations.

Just as importantly, it provides a shared basis for discussion between operators and contractors. Conversations move away from generic statements about assurance and toward a proactive evidence-based dialogue about system health, degradation and recovery.

Looking ahead

Valaris BarrierPulse is not a finished product. As data quality improves and operational feedback is incorporated, the system continues to evolve. The longer-term focus is on strengthening predictive capability, identifying where degradation is likely to occur, assessing the potential effects or impact, and intervening earlier.

More broadly, the objective is cultural. Barrier health should not be something reviewed periodically or discussed only after events. It should be a proactive part of how operational integrity is understood and managed every day. For Valaris, BarrierPulse represents a shift away from static assurance models toward a more practical, dynamic and transparent approach to managing major accident risk, one that recognizes that real safety performance depends on understanding how people, plant and process perform together, under real operating conditions. DC

BarrierPulse is a trademark of Valaris.

This article is based on a presentation at the 2026 IADC Health, Safety, Environment & Training Conference, 18-19 February, Houston, Texas.