Telephone interview with american bureau of shipping (abs)
Dave Forsyth - Chief surveyor for offshore
Interview was conducted on May 16, 2013 by telephone
Interviewer: Grant Wallburg 5th Grade Thompson Brook School Student
Interviewee: Dave Forsyth Chief Surveyor for Offshore
Background Information:
American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) is a provider of marine and offshore classification services. According to the ABS website, ABS makes standards for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of offshore drilling and production units and gas carriers. What that means is that ABS makes the rules and then must make sure others are following them.
To find out more about this company, below is a link to American Bureau of Shipping:
http://www.eagle.org/eagleExternalPortalWEB/
Interview:
Grant: Can you tell me more about what you do?
Dave: I am involved with mobile offshore drilling units. ABS gets involved with the drilling units/rigs early on. Companies will typically submit drawings for approval. Then as the building process occurs ABS will make sure all plans are being followed throughout the process. Then ABS incorporates annual checks and five year checks. The five year checks are very detailed.
Grant: How do you make sure your rules are being followed?
Dave: The regulatory program is actually governed by a bureau within the US Government in the United States. Every couple of weeks, mobile offshore drilling units. We right the rules and when someone wants to build one of these units, they submit their drawings and calculations to the Engineering Group within ABS. The Engineering Group checks to make sure everything meets the rules. Then while the companies are actually building the units in the ship yard or factories, ABS sends other engineers called surveyors to go out and make sure the rules are being followed. Then once it is built and in operation, ABS does the annual and special surveys. Every year look at the drilling and make sure meeting all the rules and do tests to make sure all safety systems work. Then every 5 years ABS looks at it from top to bottom, full inspection and survey which we call a special periodical survey which is a very detailed examination. They open up the internal compartments and the surveyors go in a check everything out. They also do more detailed tests on the safety equipment and systems.
Grant: Do you go underwater to make inspections?
Dave: ABS does not but professional divers are hired and they go down with a video camera. ABS monitors them from onboard the rig by watching it on television. They can do non-destructive testing and can test for cracks through magnetic particle inspection or ultrasonic inspection.
Grant: Do you have a follow up plan so that you must go back and make sure everything is still safe?
Dave:
Grant: Do you yourself travel to the drilling rigs in the ocean?
Dave: Yes I have in the past. In my new position, the Chief Surveyor for the offshore group, I oversee the other surveyors. I supervise and provide guidance and instruction and assist with decisions or rule application. I also oversee what they do basically.
Grant: Where have you gone to the oil rigs?
Dave: Well I've worked on many in the United States: Gulf of Mexico, Port of New Orleans, Texas. Also Canada's East Coast, the North Sea, Norway, and the United Kingdom. I have been to many.
Grant: Do you watch rigs being built?
Dave: Yes, it is very interesting. I just came back from a trip to China where they are building rigs and seeing how they were doing and making sure all the rules are being followed.
Grant: Who do spills and leaks occur?
Dave: Generally because of failure of a mechanical system or because of human error.
Grant: Have you been involved with any of the big spills like Exxon or PB?
Dave: Actually I was involved in the spill that happened in April of 2002, I had to testify at a hearing in 2010. PB had lost control of a well and had a "blow out". What happens is that oil and gas are in the underground reservoirs and they are under high pressure with the drilling. If you fail to contain the pressure, you can loose control of the well. This is what happened to PB. They lost control, oil spilled out, and they failed to cap it off. This was not a matter of equipment failure but a failure to follow. The government is now regulating more of the deep water drilling.
The Exxon was really a ship problem where a ship ran aground on a reef in Alaska, not an offshore drilling problem.
Grant: Are there any rules being made to prevent future damage?
Dave: Yes, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management are making more rules. It was not so much of an equipment failure with BP but it was a failure of the actual drilling program and a failure to follow the drilling program. They are making more and more regulations of which the government is overseeing the drilling program. They are also making more changes in equipment certification.
Grant: Are there new technologies to prevent leaks?
Dave: Yes, like the Blow Out Preventer (BOP). A couple of companies are making changes to their blind sheer ram which in case of emergencies can cut off the drilling pipe and close the well very quickly, this is like the third line of defense. Also, making them bigger and stronger so that they can sheer pipe a lot easier than the older equipment could. In cases, where the cement failed in the casing. They are making changes to drilling techniques and making changes to the cementing programs (cement used to reinforce the casings). You can over-pressure a pipe from the hydrostatic head in the drilling fluid. In deep water drilling, they are now doing riser-less drilling or duel gradient drilling where they eliminate the heavy hydrostatic head. In deep water drilling they are now using a mud pump on the bottom of the ocean and cutting pump on the bottom of the sea floor which allows them to control the well much more efficiently without the danger of blowing out the casing from to much pressure.
Grant: Do you think that offshore drilling is becoming safer?
Dave: Yes, I'm sure it is, I have been in this business for 33 years and the safety measures they take on rigs now are so much more advanced than they were 30 years ago. Safety doesn't just refer to leaks and spills. Many offshore drilling people have been injured or killed during the process. These are personnel injuries. The disaster off the Brazilian coast killed many, many workers. Now, however, there are significantly less injuries on board due to increased safety measures.
Note: The interviewee's responses have been paraphrased and are not exactly word for word
Interviewer: Grant Wallburg 5th Grade Thompson Brook School Student
Interviewee: Dave Forsyth Chief Surveyor for Offshore
Background Information:
American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) is a provider of marine and offshore classification services. According to the ABS website, ABS makes standards for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of offshore drilling and production units and gas carriers. What that means is that ABS makes the rules and then must make sure others are following them.
To find out more about this company, below is a link to American Bureau of Shipping:
http://www.eagle.org/eagleExternalPortalWEB/
Interview:
Grant: Can you tell me more about what you do?
Dave: I am involved with mobile offshore drilling units. ABS gets involved with the drilling units/rigs early on. Companies will typically submit drawings for approval. Then as the building process occurs ABS will make sure all plans are being followed throughout the process. Then ABS incorporates annual checks and five year checks. The five year checks are very detailed.
Grant: How do you make sure your rules are being followed?
Dave: The regulatory program is actually governed by a bureau within the US Government in the United States. Every couple of weeks, mobile offshore drilling units. We right the rules and when someone wants to build one of these units, they submit their drawings and calculations to the Engineering Group within ABS. The Engineering Group checks to make sure everything meets the rules. Then while the companies are actually building the units in the ship yard or factories, ABS sends other engineers called surveyors to go out and make sure the rules are being followed. Then once it is built and in operation, ABS does the annual and special surveys. Every year look at the drilling and make sure meeting all the rules and do tests to make sure all safety systems work. Then every 5 years ABS looks at it from top to bottom, full inspection and survey which we call a special periodical survey which is a very detailed examination. They open up the internal compartments and the surveyors go in a check everything out. They also do more detailed tests on the safety equipment and systems.
Grant: Do you go underwater to make inspections?
Dave: ABS does not but professional divers are hired and they go down with a video camera. ABS monitors them from onboard the rig by watching it on television. They can do non-destructive testing and can test for cracks through magnetic particle inspection or ultrasonic inspection.
Grant: Do you have a follow up plan so that you must go back and make sure everything is still safe?
Dave:
Grant: Do you yourself travel to the drilling rigs in the ocean?
Dave: Yes I have in the past. In my new position, the Chief Surveyor for the offshore group, I oversee the other surveyors. I supervise and provide guidance and instruction and assist with decisions or rule application. I also oversee what they do basically.
Grant: Where have you gone to the oil rigs?
Dave: Well I've worked on many in the United States: Gulf of Mexico, Port of New Orleans, Texas. Also Canada's East Coast, the North Sea, Norway, and the United Kingdom. I have been to many.
Grant: Do you watch rigs being built?
Dave: Yes, it is very interesting. I just came back from a trip to China where they are building rigs and seeing how they were doing and making sure all the rules are being followed.
Grant: Who do spills and leaks occur?
Dave: Generally because of failure of a mechanical system or because of human error.
Grant: Have you been involved with any of the big spills like Exxon or PB?
Dave: Actually I was involved in the spill that happened in April of 2002, I had to testify at a hearing in 2010. PB had lost control of a well and had a "blow out". What happens is that oil and gas are in the underground reservoirs and they are under high pressure with the drilling. If you fail to contain the pressure, you can loose control of the well. This is what happened to PB. They lost control, oil spilled out, and they failed to cap it off. This was not a matter of equipment failure but a failure to follow. The government is now regulating more of the deep water drilling.
The Exxon was really a ship problem where a ship ran aground on a reef in Alaska, not an offshore drilling problem.
Grant: Are there any rules being made to prevent future damage?
Dave: Yes, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management are making more rules. It was not so much of an equipment failure with BP but it was a failure of the actual drilling program and a failure to follow the drilling program. They are making more and more regulations of which the government is overseeing the drilling program. They are also making more changes in equipment certification.
Grant: Are there new technologies to prevent leaks?
Dave: Yes, like the Blow Out Preventer (BOP). A couple of companies are making changes to their blind sheer ram which in case of emergencies can cut off the drilling pipe and close the well very quickly, this is like the third line of defense. Also, making them bigger and stronger so that they can sheer pipe a lot easier than the older equipment could. In cases, where the cement failed in the casing. They are making changes to drilling techniques and making changes to the cementing programs (cement used to reinforce the casings). You can over-pressure a pipe from the hydrostatic head in the drilling fluid. In deep water drilling, they are now doing riser-less drilling or duel gradient drilling where they eliminate the heavy hydrostatic head. In deep water drilling they are now using a mud pump on the bottom of the ocean and cutting pump on the bottom of the sea floor which allows them to control the well much more efficiently without the danger of blowing out the casing from to much pressure.
Grant: Do you think that offshore drilling is becoming safer?
Dave: Yes, I'm sure it is, I have been in this business for 33 years and the safety measures they take on rigs now are so much more advanced than they were 30 years ago. Safety doesn't just refer to leaks and spills. Many offshore drilling people have been injured or killed during the process. These are personnel injuries. The disaster off the Brazilian coast killed many, many workers. Now, however, there are significantly less injuries on board due to increased safety measures.
Note: The interviewee's responses have been paraphrased and are not exactly word for word