Dron & Dickson Toolbox Talk 01

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Latest news from Dron & Dickson

Inside this issue:

Company news LED offshore HSE update Rope access news

Dron & Dickson secures multi-million pound contract with Nexen

Dron & Dickson has recently secured a multi-million pound contract with Nexen Petroleum UK Limited.

The five-year project will see Dron & Dickson carry out electrical maintenance on Nexen’s Buzzard and Scott offshore platforms in the UK North Sea.

Dron & Dickson will provide a team of 16 to service the operation, including CompEx qualified electrical technicians and a Rope Access team for high-level maintenance.

Eric Florence, engineering services operations manager at Dron & Dickson, said: “This contract with Nexen confirms our position as being a leader in Ex inspection and maintenance in the North Sea.

“Nexen has made a significant investment in Ex Inspect software, hardware and training, which enables our technicians to retrieve, process and record the inspection data directly into Nexen’s computer maintenance management system, and we look forward to delivering this scope of work over the next five years.”

Dron & Dickson has worked extensively with Nexen on Buzzard and Scott in the past and recently achieved five years of work without incident in these areas.

Eric commented: “Completing five years without incident was a major milestone, and demonstrated our commitment to health and safety as well as strict compliance with the latest safety legislation and industry standards. We look forward to continuing our dedication to our work and our people in this and future projects.”

work activities and keep in your file for review at your planned assessment.

• All personnel will receive, on an annual basis, a technical questionnaire to complete and return as part of your competency portfolio.

• We are finalising a training and assessment facility in Aberdeen that comprises two assessment bays and a ‘classroom’ facility. It is here that the majority of competency assessments will take place.

• The number of assessment points will be made more concise to focus on the competencies required.

• Anyone moving to a new deployment where the scope of work is significantly different from

that undertaken during the previous 12 months will undergo in-house pre-deployment refresher training.

What will this mean for you?

• You will be able to gather your own competency evidence during your normal working activities and to easily identify competency elements that you still require evidence for.

• Your routine assessment will take place in Aberdeen.

• You will know well in advance when your next competency assessment will be.

• We will be able to close many knowledge gaps during the assessment process and more accurately identify any training needs to ensure competencies.

Company News

Competency assurance scheme updateBy Bob Banks, Electrical Technical Authority

There are knowledge gaps in areas that existing

available training and assessment routes do not adequately

cover.

TOOLBOX TALK Issue 01 Summer 2013

We are currently in the process of reviewing and revising our competency assurance scheme, particularly for our technician and ESM onshore support resources.

Why are we doing this?

There are a number of reasons:

• The current scheme, while it has met our initial requirements, has become very difficult to administer as the company grows, and is not best suited to our requirements. It relies heavily on a competency assessor being able to get offshore and around the country, and it does not clearly identify to you the competencies you need to be able to demonstrate or work towards. It does not allow you to proactively gather a body of competency evidence during your ongoing work activities.

• It has become evident that there are knowledge gaps in areas that existing available training and assessment routes do not adequately cover to satisfy the needs of our business as we expand both our geographical and technical scope.

What will change?

While the ultimate shape of the scheme has not been finalised, there are a number of key changes that we can share at this time:

• All personnel will be issued with their own personal competency assurance scheme file. This file will clearly identify the competencies required in each role and will give examples of suitable evidence that you can gather during your normal

Industry Trend

LED lighting blazes a trail offshoreBy Tom Irwin, ESM Business Development Manager

Contrary to popular belief, LED lighting is not a new technology. The first LED was made in 1927 and its development and usage have steadily progressed over the decades.

The oil and gas sector has been one of the last industries to utilise LED technology, with cost of production being a major factor. The greatest difficulty faced by manufacturers was overheating of the ballast/driver controls. This issue has now been overcome through the use of heat sinks and allowing the flow of air to cool the area.

Products

Currently, LED lighting is used for helideck and perimeter lighting, and helideck floodlighting on numerous North Sea Assets and has received excellent feedback. Specification of these floodlights has been improved and refined over the last 12 months.With all likelihood that fluorescent units will be replaced by LED, the

next widely anticipated products will be a fluorescent replacement.

What to look out for when selecting products

As LED technology is still relatively new to established lighting

manufacturers, it gives scope to companies

that have already produced industrial LED lighting products in other business sectors. There are numerous LED lighting

manufacturers that have tried to

penetrate the oil and gas sector in the last

two years. However, a barrier for these companies

is that they don’t all go through the same stringent component selection processes that are required for usage in the oil and gas industry.

You can expect the likes of bigger lighting manufacturers to follow the example of well-respected LED manufacturers in the selection of quality components, but it is something to be aware of as we see the influx of non-European products into the market sector.

BENEFITS OF LED

The main benefits of LED lighting over conventional fluorescent lighting units are:

• Vastly reduced power consumption (30% - 75% reduction)

• No spares required and vastly reduced maintenance

• Reduced recycling costs

• Longer lifetime of fitting (soon to be in excess of 130,000 hours lifetime)

• ‘White light’ provides better working conditions

• Can cope with severe vibration (and other harsh offshore conditions)

• Instant light output

• No depreciation in the LEDs from repeated switching off and on

• Better control of light distribution

• Weigh considerably less

80The first LED light was created over 80 years ago.


Explosion-proof barrier glands are integral to maintain the integrity of flameproof electrical equipment and contain an explosion. However, there can be confusion about which type of cable glands to use in differing situations.

When it comes to the correct selection, deployment or installation and maintenance of cable glands in hazardous areas, referring merely to the product certification is not enough, and the guidelines laid down in the available installation code(s) of practice should be strictly observed.

For cable glands to maintain integrity of type of protection Flameproof Enclosures “d” using direct cable entry into the flameproof enclosures, special selection criterions have to be considered as defined in Section 10 of IEC Standard IEC 60079-14 “Electrical apparatus for explosive gas atmospheres Part 14: Electrical installations in hazardous areas (other than mines)”.

To comply with the prevailing Installation Code of Practice and in particular IEC 60079-14, it is

necessary to evaluate the function of the equipment, the cable gland and the cable and to verify the conditions of the applicable standards’ compatibility of all three with each other.

Section 10 of IEC 60079-14 “Additional requirements for type of protection “d”- Flameproof enclosures” for the selection of cable glands is required to be followed and this sets out some specific rules to ensure integrity and safe operation of the installed equipment.

Selection Process - According to IEC 60079-14

The flow chart above can only be followed as part of the IEC selection process after physical evaluation of the cable.

10.4.2 Selection

The cable entry system shall comply with the following:

a) Cable entry device in compliance with IEC 79-1 “Construction and verification test of flameproof

enclosures of electrical apparatus” and particular type of cable intended for use with that device,

b) thermoplastic, thermosetting or elastomeric cable which is substantially compact and circular, has extruded bedding and fillers, if any, are non-hygroscopic, may utilize flameproof cable entry devices, incorporating a sealing ring selected in accordance with figure 1. Figure 1: Selection chart for cable entry devices into flameproof enclosures for cables complying with item b) of Section 10.4.2.b. On condition the cable gland is not certified as part of the equipment but tested and certified as a separate component and the used cable is substantially compact and circular, the selection chart above taken from section 10 of EN/ IEC60079-1 can be used.

The code of practice for any installation will play a vital part in the overall safety of the plant and failure to comply with it will usually lead to non-conformities and incompatibilities taking place that will inevitably compromise some aspect of safety in the on-going operations.

Technical Updates

Barrier gland selection in hazardous areas

Figure 1



Appointment

Arita Sprudzane has joined the rope access team as Rope Access Administrator. Arita will play an integral part in the department, helping with the development of our new databases and monitoring paper work entries into our system. She will be in charge of all information coming in from offshore pertaining to hours aloft, risk assessments and rescue plans. Arita will also be in charge of issuing PPE and monitoring the output. As a reminder, all PPE requests must still come through your coordinator for approval

New rope access database

The IT Department is currently working on a new database for the Rope Access Department which will allow for greater visibility across all kits, from certification, locations and upcoming inspections schedules.

Back-up device

Following debate in recent times around the use of the shunt in the manner/technique in which we use it, there have been numerous meeting with designers, manufacturers and suppliers to resolve this issue. Since then, the ‘ISC RED’ has been recommended as a replacement for the shunt which will be gradually phased out. However, it will take some time to roll this out fully as there is a considerable number of this type of equipment still in use in the field.

Rope Access NewsBy Paul GuntripRope Access Manager

Gloves trial

Following recent incidents involving cut hands both offshore and in our warehouse, we have been in discussion with our PPE supplier who has recommended we use the ‘Traffi’ Glove. These gloves are colour coded red, amber and green to help you identify which glove is suitable for the job you are doing.

We have picked the glove that we think will be most useful to you and we would like to trial these before committing to purchasing them. During the next month we will be posting out a pair of gloves along with a survey to a few offshore personnel. If you receive a pair, please use throughout your next trip and return the gloves and survey to us upon your return. The more feedback you give the better - we always appreciate feedback on PPE we send out to staff and we go by our supplier’s recommendations but those of

you in the field know better how they work in practice.

Please feel free to send any comments to Arita Sprudzane, [email protected]

Please bear in mind that we do need to choose equipment that will be suitable for as many people as possible. If you or the client you are working for have specific requirements you will need to discuss this with your project co-ordinator.


Dron & Dickson raises money for Movember

In November, our offshore crew took part of the Movember movement to raise money for prostate cancer research. One of our team, Gary Nicol, grew an enviable moustache and even enlisted the help of his sons when he was back onshore. He and the offshore team raised an impressive £1,075.

If you know of or are taking part in any charitable events, we would love to feature them in the next newsletter. Send your news and any photos you have to [email protected]

Health Safety and Environmental committee members

At Dron & Dickson, we take health and safety very seriously, and have the highest qualifications to reflect this. We are registered to OHSAS 18001:2007 with leading certification body NQA.

As a group, the HSE committee meets quarterly to discuss risk assessment and legislation updates, as well as accident reporting and HSE objectives as well as any other relevant information to keep Dron & Dickson employees safe. Any of the personnel listed opposite can be contacted for any issues or concerns that anyone may have concerning Health and Safety and the Environment.

Senior Management

Colin Rowley

ESM (Aberdeen) Kris Smith

ESM (Offshore) Dougie Black Sandy Henderson

Aberdeen Will Gibb

Rope Access Aberdeen

Paul Guntrip

Stores Terry Jackson

Stirling Ewan Robertson

Lowestoft Paul Richardson

Hull Howard Kerman

Earn vouchers for your intervention cards

We encourage personnel to send in their innovation and intervention cards on a regular basis, and are offering further incentive to do so. We will award a £50 voucher to Marks & Spencer to the employee who sends in the best intervention or safety ideas. Send them [email protected]

HSE Update and CSR

We take health and safety very seriously, and

have the highest qualifications to

reflect this.

Documents

Dron & Dickson Toolbox Talk 01