Removing the risk of confined space entry from industrial tank cleaning
Case study no. 2
By Darren McAllister, QHSE Manager, Swan & Co. (Marine Surveyors) Ltd.
Non-Entry Support Tool (NEST) • Since 1996 310 people are known to have lost their lives in enclosed spaces on ships. • 224 seafarers and 86 shore personnel in 197 accidents.
Swan & Company has called on the shipping industry to work together to improve safety in these challenging onboard areas and has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to create their own changes, improvements, and innovation. Specifically, Swan & Company has focused on industrial tank cleaning operations which traditionally required extended periods of time within confined spaces. The company has developed a hugely effective solution.
Background Information
Swan & Company (Marine Surveyors) Ltd. has been industry leaders for more than 50 years. The business has a core staff with over 90 years of combined experience within the industry. Our role to our clients is to ensure that quayside operations are not just carried out efficiently and effectively but are done so under the safest possible means. Every single operation offers up its own set of risk, hazard, and vulnerability, but our presence overseeing these operations ensure safe and controlled execution. The team's experience has allowed Swan & Co. to research and develop industry defining innovation which increases safety and efficiency for clients, quayside vendors and contractors.
Executive Summary
This study will show how Swan & Co has addressed the ongoing concern of confined space entry during industrial tank cleaning operations on offshore supply vessels. People are killed or seriously injured in confined spaces every year in the UK and worldwide. This happens in a wide range of industries, from those involving complex plant to simple storage vessels. Those involved in these incidents include not just people working in the confined space, but also those who try to rescue without proper training and equipment.
A confined space can be any space of an enclosed nature where there is a risk of death or serious injury from hazardous substances or dangerous conditions (e.g. lack of oxygen) – the study is concerned solely with supply vessel and offshore storage tanks of any kind.
114 | ISSUE 111 | MAR 2025 | THE REPORT
All images are courtesy of Swan & Co.
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 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148
