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Hector V Pazos News

18 Dec 2003

CONFINED SPACE: Accident on a Marine Vessel

Was This A Permit Required Confined Space? By Hector V. Pazos, P.E. This accident happened in a large compartment of an Offshore Supply Vessel (OSV), which, because of lack of appropriate ventilation and toxic atmosphere it should have been treated as a confined space. An OSV is a vessel that carries supplies to offshore platforms and rigs drilling for oil and gas in the oceans, such as the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the supplies are carried on the cargo deck, but drilling mud and other chemicals are carried below the cargo deck in a compartment designated as "Bulk Mud Room", which on some OSV's may be 60 to 100 feet long. In this compartment some 10 to 20 large pressurized cylindrical tanks measuring 15 to 18 ft. in diameter and 10 to 12 ft.

09 Sep 2004

Implementation of a Computerized Compliance Management System

By Hector V. In recent years, the emphasis in Maintenance Management has grown for various reasons, all very much related to the financial benefits that the owner of vessels and/or offshore installations will capture by paying much closer attention to Preventive maintenance than was normally contemplated in previous decades. The offshore oil field industry and ship owners/operators need to pay close attention to the development of international conventions containing regulations and classification society requirements regarding maintenance. Classification societies requirements to periodical surveys make possible to establish a survey arrangement for retention of class based on Planned Maintenance System (PMS) on board.

06 Dec 2002

Uncommon Marine Accidents

The majority of accidents involve personal injuries and/or fatalities, although the strong and continuous improvement in the field of accident prevention is resulting in a constant reduction of the number of marine related fatalities. After investigating several hundred marine accidents, we are concluding that marine accidents involving equipment failure have relatively low influence in the rate of personal injury accidents. Common accidents resulting in personal injury are caused by a condition not easy to detect by a casual observer. Hence, designers and supervisors should be alert and not to take for granted that a casual observer would recognize a dangerous situation.

06 Dec 2002

The Increasing Importance of Preventative Maintenance

The U.S. Coast Guard is adapting their compliance procedures to suit the recent IMO requirements. It is modifying their inspection requirements by implementing a USCG streamlined vessel inspection (SIP) scheme allowing vessel owner/operator inspections to replace certain regular inspections by the USCG, on the basis of an approved Maintenance Program. Likewise, Classification Societies (ABS, DNV and Lloyds) are accepting approved Preventive Maintenance Programs to replace special Continuous Machinery Surveys with only random inspections of such machinery. Additionally the format of the Preventive Maintenance Program is suitable to be used in conjunction with ISO 9000 certification.

21 Feb 2003

Safety: Slip and Fall Accidents in the Marine Environment

Because the exposure to the marine environment and motions of a vessel, slips and falls are a significant source of personal injuries in floating equipment, probably substantially greater than most industry groups. Although there are a good number of publications, books and articles written regarding the subject of slip and falls, there are almost none addressing the conditions found in a marine environment, which influence slips and falls. The generally accepted industry standard is that a static anti-slip coefficient of friction of .50 or above is safe on a dry walkway surface. A value below .50 indicates an unsafe walkway surface.