8


ATLANTIC TOWING


Crew of the Atlantic Kestrel completing an assessment of a training dummy during a compliance test.


SAFETY FIRST


MAKING ALL ATLANTIC TOWING


OFFSHORE VESSELS CERTIFIED STANDBY COMPLIANT


The Breaux Tide, a vessel we are managing operations on and chartered in since September 2015 from Tidewater, the leading provider of Offshore Service Vessels to the global energy industry, recently became the first vessel in Canada to become certified standby compliant under new regulations. These were issued June 5th 2015 and established by the Nova Scotia and Newfoundland’s Offshore Petroleum Boards (CNSOLPB and CNLOLPS).


Atlantic Towing has been successful in making their vessels standby compliant ahead of the mandatory deadline a year from the issue date, but it comes at no easy task at setting forth the guidelines as well as completing all of the obligations outlined.


Tom Swift, OSV Operations Manager with Atlantic Towing, sat on a working panel, chaired by Nova Scotia and Newfoundland’s petroleum boards, and included joint industry groups: National Energy Board, CAPP (Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers), Transport Canada, and the major classification societies (DNV and Lloyds Register of Shipping), to identify and establish the necessary guidelines for a vessel to effectively respond to offshore related emergencies. The guidelines are comprised of three major areas, including procedural/ operational changes, system changes and additional training. The creation of the new guidelines took nearly two years.


“The working group responsible for the creation of the new standby guidelines had a challenging task of bringing many different perspectives to each issue while trying to minimize bias. The meetings were conducted with very open and sometimes passionate debates on the merits of proposed changes to standby guidelines” explains Tom Swift. “Overall, all parties approached the guidelines with a genuine desire to improve safety and emergency preparedness in the offshore industry with a willingness to compromise.”


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20