Bird guano accumulations and their effect on offshore helicopter operations

116 Pages·2001·3.06 MB·English

HSE
Health & Safety
Executive
Bird guano accumulations
and their effect on offshore
helicopter operations
Prepared by
BOMEL Ltd/John Burt Associates Ltd
on behalf of BOMEL Consortium
for the Health and Safety Executive
OFFSHORE TECHNOLOGY REPORT
2000/131
HSE
Health & Safety
Executive
Bird guano accumulations
and their effect on offshore
helicopter operations
BOMEL Ltd
Ledger House
Forest Green Road
Fifield, Maidenhead
Berkshire SL6 2NR
United Kingdom
HSE BOOKS
©Crown copyright 2001
Applications for reproduction should be made in writing to:
Copyright Unit, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office,
St Clements House, 2-16 Colegate, Norwich NR3 1BQ
First published 2001
ISBN 0 7176 2037 9
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
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in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior
written permission of the copyright owner.
This report is made available by the Health and Safety
Executive as part of a series of reports of work which has
been supported by funds provided by the Executive.
Neither the Executive, nor the contractors concerned
assume any liability for the reports nor do they
necessarily reflect the views or policy of the Executive.
ii
CONTENTS
Page No
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY v
1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 PURPOSE 1
1.2 SCOPE 2
2 PART 1 - GUANO ACCUMULATION ON INSTALLATIONS 3
2.1 BACKGROUND TO THE GUANO PROBLEM 3
2.2 THE EXTENT OF THE PROBLEM 3
2.3 THE PATTERN AND POSSIBLE REASONS FOR THE GUANO 27
ACCUMULATIONS
3 PART 2 - THE EFFECTS AND CONSEQUENCES FOR OFFSHORE 35
OPERATIONS
3.1 LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY - THE OFFSHORE AND AVIATION 35
REGULATORY POSITION
3.2 THE POTENTIAL HAZARDS TO HELICOPTER FLIGHT 38
OPERATIONS
3.3 EFFECTS ON HELICOPTER FLIGHT OPERATIONS DECISION 42
MAKING
3.4 THE POTENTIAL HAZARDS FOR HELIDECK OPERATIONS 44
3.5 EFFECTS ON PERSONNEL HEALTH AND SAFETY 44
3.6 EFFECTS ON MAINTENANCE AND HOUSEKEEPING 49
4 PART 3 - MITIGATING MEASURES 55
4.1 PREVENTION SYSTEMS AND THEIR EFFECTIVENESS 55
4.2 MEASURES USED AND LESSONS LEARNT BY THE 59
OFFSHORE INDUSTRY TO DATE
4.3 MEASURES USED AND LESSONS LEARNT FROM UK FIXED 64
WING AVIATION
iii
CONTENTS CONTINUED
Page No
4.4 MEASURES USED AND LESSONS TO BE LEARNT FROM 66
OTHER INDUSTRIES: IMPLICATIONS FOR OFFSHORE
4.5 SUMMARY AND CLOSING REMARKS 67
5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 73
5.1 CONCLUSIONS 73
5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS 76
6 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND REFERENCES 78
6.1 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 78
6.2 BIBLIOGRAPHY 78
APPENDIX A - LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS 79
APPENDIX B - ILLUSTRATIONS OF GUANO ACCUMULATION AND 81
ITS EFFECTS - CAA REPORT
APPENDIX C - UKCS HELIDECK GUANO PROBLEMS - CAA MOR 85
ANALYSIS
APPENDIX D - SEA BIRD ORDERS 88
APPENDIX E - SEA BIRD SPECIES AROUND UKCS 92
APPENDIX F - TOTAL OIL MARINE WATER SPRAY SYSTEM - 100
PHOTOGRAPHS
APPENDIX G - BRISTOW HELICOPTERS WEEKLY REPORT - NUI 106
HELIDECK CONDITION
iv
HEALTH AND SAFETY EXECUTIVE
OFFSHORE DIVISION
BIRD GUANO ACCUMULATIONS AND THEIR EFFECT ON
OFFSHORE HELICOPTER OPERATIONS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report has been prepared with the help of contributions from several people and companies
working in the offshore Industry (see Appendix A).
In taking this approach to the subject, a balanced report has been prepared that meets the
objective for obtaining a better appreciation of current bird / guano accumulation problems
encountered on UKCS installations; in particular their effects on safety and health aspects of
offshore helicopter operations.
Clearly, the long-standing problem with birds / guano on offshore installations has not altered to
any extent. This comes as no surprise because it is well known that the forces of nature are
always present and defeating them entirely is often beyond the wit of man. A more pragmatic
approach for duty holder and regulator alike is to simply accept the irresistible forces of nature
are at work when an installation is selected and colonised by sea birds. Once this happens the
problem has to be properly managed by the duty holder and helicopter operators to minimise
the effects of the birds on both platform and helicopter operations. Introducing an industry led
helideck condition monitoring system and focusing on simple solutions for more efficient guano
clean-up are considered to have the greatest potential for gaining real benefits and achieving
some cost savings.
Helicopter bird strikes and interference are always going to be a potential hazard in the offshore
operating environment. However, evidence suggests that this is a UKCS-wide problem and
helicopter operations to normally unattended installations, where sea birds are known to
congregate, are no more affected or hazardous than elsewhere.
It is apparent that duty holders and helicopter operators are managing the problem in different
ways, but levels of success and enthusiasm vary.
There are ways to move forward to make further gains in the quest to reduce operational, safety
and health hazards. Suggested efficiencies for minimising the effects of birds and their guano
accumulations on NUI’s, are identified in the body of the report and in the recommendations.
Essentially, all sides of the UKCS offshore industry are encouraged to work more closely
together and to facilitate open dialogue and information exchange to assist all duty holders who
encounter a bird / guano problem on their installations.
v
Routine and frequent reporting of helideck condition is fundamental to efficiently managing the
guano accumulation and obscured marking and lighting problems. Industry co-operation should
include development of a routine UKCS NUI helideck condition reporting, assessment,
recording and publishing system in conjunction with procedures fully owned, sponsored and
managed by UKOOA / BHAB.
To assist with helideck condition reporting frequency all pilots could be requested to look at
helidecks other than the ones they are flying to.
This management approach if used as an ‘early warning system’, offers a good way for
helicopter operators and installation duty holders to jointly discharge their ‘duties of care’ toward
ensuring that NUI helidecks remain compliant in respect of the ANO and offshore legislation.
The procedures could be incorporated into the UKOOA Guidelines for Helicopter Operations to
Normally Unattended Installations.
No individual exclusion device has been able to provide the whole solution. It requires a
combination of systems to sustain a reasonable degree of freedom from the birds in the medium
term. This is currently being demonstrated with the Gull Scat / water spray combination on
Total Oil Marine’s MCP-01.
Cleaning and disposal of guano and bird debris from a fouled helideck remains a major task for
most NUI duty holders, when they have helidecks that are heavily fouled. It is very unpleasant
for the personnel involved, exposes them to potential health hazards, it is time consuming and
disruptive to routine maintenance operations and is costly. There is much merit in focusing
more attention on finding practical and cost effective solutions to these problems. Solutions that
also reduce the frequency of repairing helideck surfaces and markings and replacing helideck
nets would be an added bonus.
A starting point toward finding a practical solution to disposal and cleaning problems may be
found in the ‘tarpaulin’ system currently used, with some success, by ARCO. Arco currently
employ a system that achieves bulk guano removal and reduces helideck cleaning effort to
quite an extent. It is recommended that industry consider this system as an option that
deserves further development.
vi
1. INTRODUCTION
This study report was commissioned by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE),
Offshore Division (OD 5.5).
Offshore Technology Report - OTO 98 088, titled “HSE / CAA Inspection Project
Offshore Helidecks 1991-1995” issued in March 1998 (Reference 1), highlighted
concerns over the long-standing problems of sea birds roosting on Normally
Unattended Installations (NUI’s). The main problem with these sea birds is their habit
of leaving guano accumulations, which build up to a point where helideck markings
become obscured. This can contribute towards a pilot making a wrong deck landing
(Reference 3) and in extreme cases aborting a landing. Equally important is the other
debris they leave behind (potential FOD, see Section 6 for abbreviations), along with
the general health risks for personnel exposed to guano and increased bird strike
potential for helicopters operating in the local area.
Figures given in the OTO Report suggest that about 30% of helidecks on NUI’s have a
consistent problem with guano accumulation. This figure was given as ‘recent’ in the
report and followed the formation in March 1997 of a Joint Industry Working Group
(convened by HSE) to look at the size of the problem posed by colonising seabirds,
the range of attendant problems they create and to look for possible solutions. This
report continues HSE's aim to facilitate the search for solutions.
The guano problem on NUI helidecks is well illustrated in the photographs reproduced
from the OTO Report, in Appendix 2.
1.1 PURPOSE
HSE’s primary objective is to obtain a better appreciation of current bird guano
accumulation problems that are encountered on UKCS installations (manned and
unmanned) and their effects on the safety and health aspects of offshore helicopter
operations.
From the findings of this study, a secondary objective is to identify those areas where
further productive work could be done to find ways to improve the current situation
through minimising the effects of guano accumulations.
1
1.2 SCOPE
For ease of reference, the study is broken down into three parts that must be
addressed in order to meet the primary and secondary objectives. The topics covered
are:
(cid:1) Guano accumulation on installations
(cid:1) The effects and consequences for offshore operations
(cid:1) Mitigating measures
2
2. PART 1 - GUANO ACCUMULATION ON INSTALLATIONS
2.1 BACKGROUND TO THE GUANO PROBLEM
Since the advent of UKCS oil and gas exploration and production operations, visiting
seabirds and other bird species have become part of the natural environment offshore.
Seasonal in their habits (breeding, feeding and migration) a variety of different birds
have been observed on offshore platforms at various times throughout the year.
It is the various species of sea birds that appear to dominate in the helideck guano
accumulation problem. Manned installations are also affected to some extent but
these tend to be isolated instances and limited in their effect. Normally Unattended
Installations (NUI’s) are, by far, the most affected. The habitual colonisation, by sea
birds, of unmanned installations around the UKCS, particularly during the summer and
autumn periods, has given rise to concern over many years for the owners of many of
the 90 or so NUI’s located around the UKCS. See Figure 2.1 for NUI distribution
around the UKCS.
As has been highlighted in the HSE / CAA Helideck Inspection Project report
(Reference 1) and other literature, helideck markings become severely obscured,
there are general health risks for personnel exposed to guano and there is always the
potential for aircraft bird strikes.
This report will seek to put these problems into perspective from an operational
viewpoint.
2.2 THE EXTENT OF THE PROBLEM
2.2.1 RESULTS OBTAINED FROM INTERROGATING THE CAA SDD
MANDATORY OCCURRENCE REPORTING (MOR) DATABASE
CAA SDD were formally requested to interrogate their MOR Database using a variety
of search parameters such as:
(cid:1) Guano accumulation on helidecks.
(cid:1) Obscured helideck markings.
(cid:1) Cancelled or aborted sorties due to the above problems.
(cid:1) Bird strikes or near misses around offshore platforms.
3