The U.S. Coast Guard and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement issued a joint safety alert addressing a dynamic positioning incident on a vessel resulting in a loss of position while conducting a critical Outer Continental Shelf activity. An equipment failure, an operational error and multiple failure modes – not identified in the vessel’s Failure Modes and Effects Analysis – combined to produce the loss of position.

Consequences such as personal injury, environmental pollution or catastrophic damage were averted because of the successful actions taken by the crew, who performed an emergency disconnect from the well in accordance with established procedures.

The Coast Guard and BSEE are issuing this joint safety alert because we share jurisdiction over vessels that perform this type of Outer Continental Shelf activity and wish to highlight the interaction between a vessel’s Safety Management System and a leaseholder’s Safety and Environmental Management System.

This blog is not a replacement or substitute for the formal posting of regulations and updates or existing processes for receiving formal feedback of the same. Links provided on this blog will direct the reader to official source documents, such as the Federal Register, Homeport and the Code of Federal Regulations. These documents remain the official source for regulatory information published by the Coast Guard.