The U.S. Coast Guard and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement issued a joint safety alert addressing a dynamic positioning incident involving an Offshore Supply Vessel, or OSV, which resulted in a loss of position while conducting a critical Outer Continental Shelf, or OCS, activity.

The OSV was attached to a wellhead, lost position and severed the wellhead tree causing a lubricant release on the platform deck and to the environment. Immediately prior to the position loss, the OSV had multiple DP system alarms and failures, including loss of bow thruster and engine control. No attempt was made to identify or correct the causes of these failures and the operations continued. Severe consequences were averted because a subsurface safety valve was activated and there was an absence of hydrocarbon flow from the well.

View the joint safety alert for full details…

The Coast Guard and the BSEE are issuing this joint safety alert because we share jurisdiction on the OCS and wish to highlight the importance of an OSV’s Safety Management System and a leaseholder’s Safety and Environmental Management System.

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