Offshore research
Introduction
HSE's Energy Division (ED) research is undertaken by a mixture of:
- Intramural, by the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL)
- Extramural, from directly commissioned outside bodies
- Extramural, in the form of JIPs. These could be either with HSE funding or with investment of HSE specialist involvement/support only.
ED's strategy sets out how our research programme is identified and prioritised. The requirements are based on an assessment of ED's future business needs in relation to offshore health and safety regulation.
ED's Research priorities
- Research that can be linked to our four key themes of:
- Leadership
- Asset integrity
- Competency
- Safety culture
- Urgent research arising from reactive work such as investigation
- In response to new technology
- Support for ED''s business development
Research reports
All of HSE's Research Reports are published on our website. For ease of reference a full list of offshore specific reports is also available.
International Committee On Regulatory Authority Research And Development (ICRARD)
HSE is a member of ICRARD which is dedicated to disseminating knowledge in the area of health, safety and environment in the petroleum sector. Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, The Netherlands, UK, and the USA are members. ICRARD's web site provides an overview of ongoing research programs and projects in the member countries, and includes links to key contacts, research programs and institutes etc.
Current programme of offshore research
Our current programme includes the following projects:
- Dealing with emerging issues offshore
- Stress corrosion cracking in stainless steels used offshore
- Integrity of passive fire protection condition / response with explosion followed by fire
- Thermal cycling of PFP for high pressure/high temperature applications
- Vulnerability of oil contaminated fire retardant overalls
- Flammability of water/offshore process fluid mixtures
- Assessment of the significance of aerosol hazards from multi-component, flammable impinging releases
- Testing of fire dampers to draft ISO standards
- Technical guidance on use of aluminium offshore
- Inspection of ageing offshore installations
- In-safe joint industry project (JIP): Improved guidelines for the prediction of geotechnical performance of spudcan foundations during installation
- Flashing liquid jets and two-phase dispersion (droplet) phase IV (formation of flammable mists offshore)
- Development of guidelines for normally unattended offshore installations
- Floating Production System - Mooring integrity - Phase 2
- Cooperative research on extreme seas and their impact
- Mooring chain out of plane bending - Joint industry project
- Offshore working time in relation to performance and health & safety
- Evaluation of worldwide practices on the structural integrity management and regulation of ageing installations
- Further study of fatigue damage to girth welds from low stresses in the loading spectrum - Joint industry project
- Material property requirements for mobile offshore installations
- Review of the structural integrity management aspects of Classification Society rules for mobile offshore installations in the context of the UK regulatory regime
- Overview of the UK's ageing offshore infrastructure - Structural integrity considerations
- Techniques and technology underpinning the management of ageing jacket integrity - Phase 2: Detailed review of key structural integrity issues
- Residual stress measurements and modelling for offshore girth welds
- Seismic monitoring of the UK Continental Shelf including North West Atlantic
- Techniques and technology underpinning the management of ageing jacket integrity - Phase 1
- Response to dynamic impact to installations
- Framework for structural integrity management of mobile installations
- ISO 19905 1 technical development
- Review of design methods for wave impact loading on FPSOs and FSUs