Cross-Checking the Checklist
Oilfield Technology, September 2011
Currently, complex, integrated systems on high-specification offshore assets are being addressed through prescriptive, stand-alone design, testing and integration methods. These are not enough. Bill O'Grady, Athens Group VP of Engineering, discusses the need for a holistic, systems-oriented approach to managing risks that accrue along the system lifecycle.
Managing Your Alarms
Digital Energy Journal, November/December 2010When people are designing alarm systems for specific pieces of equipment, you can understand why the tendency is to program “if in doubt, sound the alarm.” But the end result is that crew end up hearing many alarms they don’t need to hear – or get confused about what they mean. Digital Energy Journal spoke with Don Shafer, Athens Group Chief Technology Officer and Chief Safety Officer, about what rig operators can do to prevent these issues.
Post Oil Spill: Why Risk Mitigation is Now a Top-Line Driver
Oil and Gas Financial Journal, November 2010The industry has always had a zero-tolerance goal for safety incidents, and risk mitigation has always been viewed as a bottom-line contributor. But post oil spill, risk mitigation is being viewed as strategic to securing and renewing contracts. Athens Group CEO, Mike Haney, discusses three key risk mitigation strategies that will become necessary in order to maintain or gain market share and protect profitability.
DP Integration Illustrates Larger Need
Offshore, November 2010Keeping DP systems at peak and most reliable performance, and integrating those systems with all others on an offshore drilling unit, have become a major focus of the offshore operators who contract the rigs, and hence for the offshore drillers who build and operate them. For an understanding of how DP systems work and how software integration is moving into greater focus for offshore operators, Offshore talked to Don Shafer, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Safety Officer at Athens Group.
Software Safety Enters Spotlight
E&P Magazine, November 2010The oil and gas industry cannot afford to ignore the very real safety and operational risks that are introduced when software is treated as an afterthought. To mitigate these risks, we must work together to shine the spotlight on software by increasing education, working to establish industry standards for control systems software, and collecting more comprehensive data on software-related safety incidents and nonproductive time (NPT)
How to Manage Software Risk
World Oil, September 2010Mission-critical processes now rely heavily on automated and highly integrated control systems software. This increased reliance on automation introduces reliance on automation introduces invisible, but very real software risks during the building, operation and refurbishment of high-specification offshore assets.
Rig NPT: The Ugly Truth
Drilling Contractor, September/October 2010Non-productive time (NPT) related to the integration of control systems software and hardware is a major pain point for many Operators and Drilling Contractors, yet it's a category of NPT that hasn't been - and my still not be - properly recognized or addressed.
Alarm Management: 7 Practices to Help Drillers Prioritize Warnings, Prevent Ambiguous Displays
Drilling Contractor, September/October 2010Many drillers encounter thousands or tens of thousands of alarms per day - far more than recommended. The good news is that drilling contractors and operators can implement practices to help ensure that their alarm system is functioning correctly and is in compliance with regulatory standards.
Project-Based Approach Pushes Stena Drillship to 'Best in Class'
Drilling Contractor, September/October 2010This case study, authored by representatives from Stena Drilling and Repsol, describes how a managed and operational planning approach to building and bringing a new deepwater drillship online and subsequently executing the first series of wells has paid off for both the operator and drilling contractor and has maximized the added value of the project for all parties involved.
The BP Oil Spill: Could Software Be a Culprit?
Trends, IT Pro, September/October 2010There are several possible scenarios in which a software failure could have manifested as a serious rig failure. For example, any one of the many software systems could have started failing weeks or months before the Deepwater Horizon incident, causing accumulative problems.
Requirements and Issue Tracking Database Helps Reduce NPT
AADE, Houston Chapter, Summer 2010Too often functional and performance control systems software requirements are incomplete, scattered across multiple documents or worse, just plain missing. Athens Group's Software Requirements and Issue Tracking Database helps reduce Non-Productive Time (NPT) by providing a central location for logging and tracking all control systems software-related requirements.
Control Systems Integration an Ongoing Challenge
Drilling Contractor, January/February 2010
Tim Juran, executive vice president of Seadrill Americas:"We've seen significant challenges in trying to integrate and making sure that the software control systems are fully matured and operate reliably. It's an ongoing challenge that's getting better with time, and we're certainly going to confront that challenge going forward."
Out of Sight, Out of Mind?
DrillingContractor.org, 28 January 2010
On the majority of drilling rigs today, "software" remains a largely invisible element of our operations that is out of sight, out of mind. If the top drive breaks down, we can see it and we can fix it. If a mud pump breaks down, we can see it and we can fix it. But what happens when software fails?
Reducing Rig Software Risk
E&P, May 2008
For quite some time, increasingly complex software systems on offshore drilling and production facilities have been neglected. Because it is invisible, software is often the forgotten stepchild, until an incident occurs that causes expensive downtime, or worse, a serious accident.