Clinching Evidence Finally the day arrived when I chanced upon a close encounter that the ROV had with the stinger. The display at the console showed that the straps were rubbing against a hard portion on the stinger, exactly the way I had surmised. I was prompt to take a photo of the view from the console. It was evident that the damage caused by this contact that the straps were making with the hard portion on the stinger was the root cause of the strap failures. The clinching evidence was presented to all concerned, OCM down the line. This was incontrovertible proof of the cause of the failures. I had nailed the problem.
Remedial Action Now there was no escape from acknowledging the findings and taking appropriate remedial action. The management got into a huddle and held a closed door meeting. The decision to raise the stinger for repairs was in place within the next 15 minutes. The client ashore was taken into confidence.
Thereafter the pipeline was laid down and the stinger was raised. The stinger was observed to have precisely the same defect that I was harping on. Some of the rollers were not rolling and were jammed and had ended up virtually as hard metallic objects creating notches on the straps leading to their subsequent failures.
Necessary repairs were carried out. Thereafter the stinger was lowered to the designated position. CoA was issued for recovery of pipeline and the temporarily laid pipeline was recovered for resumption of production.
Happily Ever After... After the repairs, there was no looking back. The production resumed with full vigor. Strap failures were a thing of the past. Gradually the optimism of the work force improved.
The smiles were back in place. The vessel started clocking miles in turn. She laid nearly 20 KM of pipeline
in the next 8 days or so – nonstop - without a single failure of straps. Thus she successfully completed the full scope of the campaign in good time. The mighty modern ship moved on with flying colors!
The Lesson Learnt There was a valuable lesson to be learnt, as is evident. But the question was who will learn the lesson. The crew of the vessel may change. The operator may move on. Hence it was decided that the MWS must share it with fellow surveyors so that the industry benefits. What better forum to share the experience other than “The Report”? Hence this brief write-up…
At the end of the day one question lingers on: Was the “MoC” required...? I wouldn’t comment; what is your take?
Email:
cdr.bgnair@
oceanstarmaritime.com
“
Necessary repairs were carried out. Thereafter the stinger was lowered to the designated position. CoA was issued for recovery of pipeline and the temporarily laid pipeline was recovered for resumption of production.
” The Report • June 2019 • Issue 88 | 51
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