Quarterly October 2004 - Odfjell

Risk Management NewsAdherence to ProceduresBy Toralf SørenesBow Pilot entering Shanghai in smog anddense trafficand organization. Their “field work” will beclosed with a three-day workshop whererelevant personnel from DNV and Odfjellwill participate. The objective of this projectis to make our operations safer by findingpotential risk areas, both technical andoperational, thereby enabling us to reduceor eliminate these. Their report is expectedin October 2004.The Safety Bulletin in the June 2004 issueof Odfjell Quarterly focused on factssurrounding the fatal tank explosions wehave had this year. These have caused a hardtime for many, in particular those directlyaffected. Within the Risk Managementsection, following up towards underwritersand implementation of short and long termpreventive measures have taken a lot of time.Risk avoidance and loss prevention have beenapproached as follows:1. Potential causes and preventive measures2. External review of our operations3. Potential underlying or root causes1 Potential causes and preventivemeasuresThe NCC Mekka and Bow Mariner cases are stillunder investigation by Flag State Authorities,and no conclusions or reports have yet beenissued. On our part, all relevant informationwe have been able to retrieve has beencarefully reviewed. Instructions and Memosto Masters have been issued, to quicklyreduce or eliminate the real and potentialcauses or risk factor we have identified.We have also been in contact with severalof our major customers, to report status,discuss facts and loss prevention, and listento general advice. At the time of writingthis article we have completed an in-depthrevision of our main shipboard instructions,the Shipboard Management Manual and theOdfjell Seachem Requirements & GuidelinesTank cleaningManual. The revision has focused onpreventive measures related to the recentaccidents and the use of nitrogen on ourships. At a later stage we will consider amore editorial and pedagogic revision withmain focus on making the manuals moreuser-friendly.2 External review of our operationsOdfjell top management has decided thatsomeone from an external entity shouldreview and make an assessment of cargorelatedfire and explosion risks on our ships.For this purpose we chose Det Norske Veritas(DNV), a highly recognized independentcompany with significant knowledge andexperience within shipping, both as regards“hardware” and “software”. They haveinterviewed key personnel in our offices,in particular those with recent seafaringexperience, and have reviewed our procedures3 Potential underlying or rootcausesThe simple question “why did this accidenthappen” will almost always lead onebehind the direct cause. The last and mostchallenging issue is therefore to find anddo something with underlying causes.Our procedures are based on regulations,industry guidelines and historical data likerecords, analysis of incidents and near misses.These procedures shall be instrumental indeveloping safe and good working routines.In most serious accidents one often finds asignificant element of procedures that havenot been followed. This is referred to asthe human element which to a great partis related to attitudes. To change attitudestakes time. One of our major challengesthe next couple of years will be to makea visible change towards safer operations,by improving our level of compliance withprocedures. The starting point is verificationof compliance through increased control. Ifthe controls reveal shortfalls, we must takethe necessary time to analyze what causedthe shortfall. Was it wrong attitude, lackof knowledge and subsequent need oftraining or unclear instructions? Whateveris found must be timely and systematicallyaddressed. Increased use of well publishedor known sanctions will also be consideredas a last resort. Odfjell top managementexpects to see a clear reduction in findingsby those controlling us, be it authorities, classsocieties or customers. The Risk ManagementDepartment will spearhead this task, but it isof utmost importance that everyone, on alllevels, ashore and aboard, supports us in thistask.odfjell quarterly 14