Mitigating the risk of collision at sea requires a deep understanding of the causes. New industry guidance issued today helps to make offshore operations safer for marine and energy operators.
The new Guidance Notes for Collision Analysis assist owners, operators, and designers of offshore units with identifying potential collision scenarios, assessing the relative risks and conducting numerical analysis, establishing representative collision loads, and measuring the impact of these loads on the structural integrity of offshore units.
A collision may occur as a result of a vessel losing its positioning or navigational abilities due to structural, mechanical, or electrical failure, human error, and environmental conditions.
“Assessing the impact of potential collisions is critical to the longevity of any offshore unit not only from a design perspective, but also to help ensure a safe operating environment,” says Phil Rushton, Senior Engineer for Offshore Structures , and one of the primary authors steering the development of this latest guidance from Lloyd’s Register.
A primary goal for the launch of these new Guidance Notes is to provide the direction and criteria to help industry increase the level of protection against collisions at sea. The Guidance Notes cover everything from vessel groundings to collisions with merchant, naval, and support vessels.
“Collisions at sea represent one of the top safety hazards for any operator,” highlights Rushton . “Mitigating collision risks is vital to the protection of our environment, the safety of industry’s people working offshore and the longevity of offshore energy infrastructure.”
Lloyd’s Register has unparalleled global experience in collision analysis, offering consolidated engineering and technical services spanning risk identification, risk mitigation and approval of related plans, including finite element analysis, fatigue and fracture assessment, forensic and failure investigations, and a diverse range of relevant structural evaluations.
Its suite of guidance notes support the Rules for Offshore Units, issued in July 2014. The Rules set the requirements for the classification elements of Lloyd’s Register’s services, and are supported by a library of unit or subject-specific guidance notes, which either expand upon the Rules with suggested methodologies or give information on related non-classification services.