Health & Safety
Steve Foy, Authorised Electrical Person at Forties Charlie oilfield, a division of Apache Ltd. North Sea operations has firsthand experience with the solution: “Te torch brightness and distance of beam is excellent, ease of use is good, and battery life is exceptional. You can easily get 4 to 5 hours worth of continuous use without recharging.” At Transocean, they emphasize the importance of maintaining work efficiency, and being able to locate functional flashlights whenever needed: “With permanent charging stations locally, torches are more accessible and less likely to be missing whether it’s the drill area, shaker, mud room, or pump room. Te torch is suitable for multiple uses and with no risk of drained batteries at times they need to be operational,” explains Rig Manager at Seacher, Pål A. Svensen.
Automatic emergency lighting In addition to having received very positive feedback on the Reference torch as an operational lighting solution, general interest has also triggered new possibilities and areas of application. A major contributor, Statoil, conducted a nine-month trial project at an oilfield in the North Sea. During the summer of 2009, the company decided to implement the product as standard portable emergency equipment within each sleeping compartment on the Visund oilrig.
“In case of a blackout, the lights turn on automatically. As our system satisfy the strict certification requirements, they can be made more accessible in zones where it’s very important to have access to light in the event of an emergency,” says Einar Lende.
Close to 100 sets were installed at Visund, and in addition to the automatic emergency lighting feature, the solution functions as a portable and reliable light source in the case of an evacuation. With an estimated installation time of ten minutes per compartment and a self- maintaining battery, it is hoped that Reference will become a standard within offshore accommodation areas. As a result of the Visund installation, other operators within the oil and gas industry have started to show interest in modernisation, and may follow in Statoil’s footsteps the coming months. Einar Lende is pleased with these latest developments, and he believes that over time the torch range has the potential to reach many new market segments and application areas as both a safety device and an operating utility. During the development phase, various components and technology were thoroughly evaluated with enforced security and long term operational life in mind. Te charging system utilise
IECEx Certification of Personnel Competency A
fter a number of years in the planning, the new IECEx Scheme for Certification
of Personnel Competency is off the ground. Baseefa is the first Certification Body within the new scheme to have satisfied the IECEx Assessors that it is capable of operating across all 10 units of competency recognised by the scheme. Plant owners now have an opportunity
to use a worldwide standard for judging whether or not the staff they employ to install, inspect and maintain their plant are truly competent for the purpose. In Europe, the ATEX ‘User’ Directive 1999/92/EC
Fig. 1. Baseefa’s Ron Sinclair and Allan Ogden flank the IECEx Assessment Team.
reinforces the statements in the international standards in the IEC 60079 series, parts 10, 14, 17 and 19 which refer directly to the requirement to have competent people. This applies to those in charge of the operations (responsible persons) as well as the hands-on people (the operatives). The 10 units of Competence, most of which can be
subdivided in relation to the protection concepts or the management level of the individual are:
l Basic principles of Ex Protection. l Classification of Hazardous Areas.
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l Installation of Equipment and Wiring Systems. l Maintaining Equipment. l Overhaul and Repair of Equipment. l Testing Electrical Installations. l Visual and Close Inspection. l Detailed Inspection. l Designing Installations. l Auditing of Installations.
In addition to a stringent written examination with a combination of multiple choice and extended answer questions, many of the units also have a practical test, spotting and correcting installation errors on actual hardware.
But competence is more than simply
being able to sit an exam after training. It is about the sustained ability to correctly apply the knowledge and skills gained during both formal and on-the-job training. The IECEx Scheme requires validated evidence of how an individual has been performing in their ‘day job’ and this evidence is updated on a regular basis as part of certification maintenance. Baseefa’s secure Competency Certification web site makes this process easy.
Although Baseefa has offered related training for
many years, and continues to do so, it is important that the training activity is separated from the certification activity and Baseefa’s procedures ensure that necessary separation. At recent meetings, both Total and Petronas have
put their weight behind the scheme and have indicated that once sufficient operatives have the IECEx Certificate, possession of the certificate will become a necessity for access to their sites across the world.
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Baseefa Ltd is based in Buxton, Derbyshire, UK.
www.baseefa.com
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