Press Release

LIFTING ON THE IMCA AGENDA

Downtime due to offshore lifting operations came under the microscope at The International Marine Contractors Association's (IMCA's) recent annual Marine and Diving Seminar held in Stavanger in mid-September.

Pete Somner, Halliburton Subsea, gave an operator's perspective on how to reduce downtime in offshore lifting operations, speaking of the various engineering, commercial, environmental and personnel factors that could affect downtime. Then, Ron Rolink of Huisman-Itrec responded on behalf of manufacturers. Using case studies to demonstrate the causes of downtime, he identified the need for greater care in the specification and purchase of cranes, thorough testing and attention to spare part requirements and better training for operating and maintenance personnel.

"This is not a conference topic that proved interesting on the day but is now going to be dropped," says Tony Read, IMCA's Chief Executive. "Far from it, it is firmly on our work programme. We, and our Marine Division members, are well aware that lifting and crane problems cause considerably more downtime than any other single cause. We are, therefore, launching a database of lifting incidents to enable members to learn from each other's experiences.

"We have asked members to look back over the past two years and let us have details of all lifting incidents in that time span. We held a workshop at the Marine Seminar in order to launch the form issued to all members for completion " those attending the workshop were able to put it to the test. Naturally, it is something of a 'chicken and egg' situation, the database will only be as good as the information provided, so we are urging members to take part in this pilot exercise in order to populate the database. Then, we can grow it with incidents as they occur. It will be similar in make up to our much used database of DP incidents, but is being designed to be more user friendly.

"Lifting incidents are not restricted to members of our Marine Division - there have been a number of ROV winch wire incidents recently. We are eager to capture data on all forms of lifting within our Divisions. This in turn will provide a greater understanding about lifting and cranes, and members will then be better able to meet Ron Rolink's requirement for accurate specification when purchasing cranes. Indeed, following the lead set by our thrusters specification form, we are developing a crane specification form that details loads and lifting requirements and which will enable both sides of the buying and selling coin to have more informed discussions with each other."

Further information on the lifting element of IMCA's work programme is available from IMCA