Investigation and analysis of ship to platform collision incidents on the UK continental shelf: highlighting trends between the enforcement of offshore regulations and the occurrence of vessel to platform collision incidents

Abstract

An offshore installation is exposed to ship collision risk from in-field and passing vessels. Both categories of collision have occurred on the United Kingdom Continental Shelf (UKCS), and both have the potential to result in catastrophic damage to the installation, although to date only significant consequences have been observed in UK waters. World-wide, catastrophic collisions with installations have occurred resulting in severe damage to vessels and installations, leading to loss of life and environmental damage. This led to the authors investigate the occurrence and reporting of ship to platform collisions on the UKCS 1971–2017. It was found that there were periodic fluctuations in the occurrence of collision accidents. This research analyses the accident trends in order to determine the whether the fluctuations were a regular occurrence and, if so, what was the cause. 511 ship to platform collision incidents between 1971 and 2017 were subject to analysis, in terms of damage classification, the vessel type, month of occurrence and a comparison of the release of regulations with the fluctuation of incidents. Subsequently, this analysis has identified a key trend between the reporting of offshore collision incidents and the release and enforcement of offshore Safety Case regulations.

Keywords:

• Offshore safety; vessel/platform collisions; safety case; offshore regulations; collision management

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Thanks, are given to the HSE for its technical and financial support. This project is partially supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme RISE under grant agreement no. [730888] (RESET).