Returning to Malaysia

After several trips and upon completion of the pipe spool installation with diving operation, finally I fly back to Malaysia for good for sometime.

Within one month upon returning to Malaysia I got an office base HSE Engineer job. For this tack I'm responsible for developing procedure, site inspection and manage HSE Statistic monthly. I found that working in office base also a good opportunity to learn  on dealing with Client directly to fulfill their requirement.

Of course always must be ready before hand for providing Client with the document that they required especially during the weekly meeting.

Getting report from offshore also proof to be a challenging task since unstable internet connection at offshore to be specific in the barge. Nevertheless report tracking must be properly tracked, analyzed recorded and lastly presented to the Client.

Performing site inspection/audit also part and partial of this job function. So, I did traveled to the base and conduct the inspection and audit. The format more or less almost the same anywhere and to include Health, Safety, Security and Environment aspect in the inspection/audit checklist.

Back in the office other function that HSE need to cover is compiling and producing the HSE bulletin on monthly basis. HSE need to get data from all parties including office staff and operation staff on any HSE concern which need to be highlighted in the bulletin

As the time pass by, the job sequence and routine goes on cycle and ongoing, daily, weekly and monthly onward.

Back to Qatar

Once my job onboard Sanko Angel completed, I received an email offering a job at Qatar. The job again involves Diving Operation.

The beauty of middle east country is most of them can be entered with VOA (Visa On Arrival) applicable to Malaysian but not so sure about other countries.

This time around in Qatar, I joined the Diving Support Vessel (DSV) Seamec Princess as per photo

The job I'm involved is series of pipe spool installation around Qatar Petroleum offshore platform. The diving operation totally only engage Saturation Diving and no air diving involved. Basically on board the diving support vessel there are systems of equipment that support the saturation diving operation. In saturation diving, the divers live in a pressurized environment, which can be a saturation system or "saturation spread", a hyperbaric environment on the surface, or an ambient pressure underwater habitat. This may be maintained for up to several weeks, and they are decompressed to surface pressure only once, at the end of their tour of duty. By limiting the number of decompressions in this way, the risk of decompression sickness is significantly reduced. Some photos of chamber system attached herewith;

As the HSE in this kind of operation,  brief understanding on the diving procedure is required. HSE will assist the diving operation in term of the health and safety aspect of the diver. Most important actually the diving support operation i.e the rigging up and lowering down equipment and tools to the diver and job sequence.

During the entire job, I faced one incident whereby the diver not releasing one sling from the pipe spool (sample as per photo).

This causing the spool twisted when the crane lift up its block to surface not knowing that that single sling is still attached to the very pipe spool. Even the vessel also jerking due to the momentum of the stuck crane lifting movement. Luckily  no injuries suffered but we experienced downtime due to the damaged spool which need to be sent to shore for repair and rework.

HSE with other team onboard come out with the investigation and carry out the corrective and preventive action to avoid recurrent of such event.

Its is always proper coordination that can prevent untoward incident in any kind of operation, and to achieve that requires all parties involves ultimate cooperation and mutual understanding. 

Diving Operation HSE on Pipe Line End Manifold (PLEM)

Right after the Heavy Lift job completed I got a call to join a DSV -Diving Support Vessel for PLEM tie in project at Puteri Field, Terengganu offshore.

I still remember the name of the Vessel, I don't know the meaning of the name but the Vessel called "Sanko Angel" maybe related to Angel and it's belong to Japanese company.

For the first time of my entire offshore life, I was on board the crew boat for the very long 32 hours journey before arriving at the location. The boat circulates around the field, sending and picking up other crew and unluckily my location is the last one. Nothing much I can do, just seat and wait.

After quite a tiring journey, finally the boat arrives at my work location and with no further delay I step on Sanko Angel to take the task as PTW Coordinator. As the PTW Coordinator I need to coordinate the diving job with mother platform and to the FPSO Puteri depending on which location is nearer to our vessel.

In the same time I also carried out the Inspection duty and other routine HSE tasks on board. Actively assisting rigger team for supporting the diver by ensuring providing the right tools for the job. Monitor the lifting basket is properly secured to the crane hook etc.

As the HSE Officer on board I also assist in ensuring saturation operation area is properly controlled. I am working closely with Diving Supervisor and the Assistant life Support Technician (ALST) to ensure the safety and healthy of the diver in the chamber.

This job is pretty much straight forward and the duration is a month only

Heavy Lifting Job HSE

My next offshore venture was in Heavy Lifting operation

I was attached to a vessel owned by Seaway Heavy Lifting  named  Stanislav Yudin for the Heavy Lifting job offshore Labuan.

The job was to install 7 modules or units off offshore structure from the main support frame to the flare boom ranging from 700 to 2000 Metric Ton.

The job pretty much depending on the weather condition i.e the sea and wind condition. A little high swell and gust if wind will affect and may jeopardize the operation.

As an HSE prelim to the operation the current and updated weather forecast must be in hand in order to make the decision to proceed or to halt the operation.

At all time the anchor position and condition being watched properly by Marine Captain Rep on board to ensure vessel is in the position for the lifting.

Inspection shall be thoroughly done on all of the lifting equipment and accessories, crane prong etc. The mammoth sling soft eye ferrule inspection date must be up to date and copy of the certificate must be available in hand for verification inspection. 

Receiving module/unit transportation dummy barge also a very challenging task as to ensure smooth along side operation. An impact of such barge with the load with it can cause severe damage to the vessel. All of this operation will be monitored by vessel superintendent with Client Rep and of course by HSE personnel. Once the dummy barge securely moored personnel from vessel will board the barge for inspection. The inspection focus on the condition of sea fastening and pad eye for slings attachment. The Center of gravity also will be checked against drawing to ensure the crane block is plumbed against it.

Again the PTW is one of the main element in controlling the job. Clear Method of Satetment (kinda assurance of safety step by step in the lifting operation) must be attached to the PTW with other certificates.

Next operation is hooking the slings to the crane prong, some crane with two prong and others usually come with four prong.

Key personnel especially the lifting superintendent and few scaffolder will be standing by at the lifted unit on the jacket leg or substructure to receive the current new module/unit.

The fitter will standby to cut the sea fastening once the crane sling taking the load from the dummy barge prior to be fully lifted/suspended on air. Sufficient tag line will be attached to the module/unit to control its movement and to help/assist in positioning it into final position.

The lifting superintendent will give the green light for the operation to start after taking into consideration sufficient weather windows for the operation and of course with all the paperwork i.e PTW etc ready in hand.

The crane operator will play a very important role to lift and maneuver the module/unit hooked to the crane prong slow but firmly until safely landing to its final position. He will be advised/supervised and monitored by the lifting superintend whom is the overall in charge of the operation.

The step repeated for each unit/module until all of them successfully and safely installed.

Nowadays new Dynamic Positioning vessel taking over the operation since maneuver and control of movement is much easier compare to anchored vessel or barge.