The International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) and International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) have launched of a collaborative safety project to advance the safety and efficiency of global drilling operations.

The new Joint Industry Project (JIP) to establish an industry-wide Blowout Preventer (BOP) Reliability Database formalized the initial phase of work in January.  The ultimate aim is to produce a single source of quality information on the performance of BOP systems.

IADC and IOGP initiated the JIP (IOGP issued a prospectus to its members in February 2015). Participating companies include oil & gas producers, drilling contractors, and equipment manufacturers.

“The new JIP brings together two groups that had previously worked in parallel to collect BOP performance data,” said Bob Blank, Vice President of Operations Excellence, Noble Drilling, one of the contractors who developed the original system.

“The Subsea BOP Users Executive Group, or ‘Group of 7’, and the IOGP Wells Expert Committee BOP Task Force, realized that a single JIP with a common language could more effectively track BOP data used for increasing safety and reliability of BOPs.

“The vision of the JIP is to develop an effective data collection methodology for BOPs, together with a well-structured database that is underpinned by an effective governance process, based on input from both groups.”

“The JIP has been designed as a unique collaborative program with the objective of gathering high quality, industry-wide, statistically significant data to improve the industry’s approach to BOP maintenance and integrity management and to feed field experience back to designers,” said Patrick Toutain, IOGP Safety Director.

The participants include the ‘Group of 7’ (Ensco International Incorporated, Noble Drilling Services, Inc., Diamond Offshore Company, Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling, Inc., Seadrill America, Inc., Pacific Drilling Services, Inc. and Maersk Drilling USA, Inc); equipment manufacturers (Cameron, GE Oil & Gas, and NOV); and operators (Anadarko, BP, Chevron, CNOOC/Nexen, ExxonMobil, Kosmos Energy, Petrobras, Shell, Statoil, and Total).

Each participating company in the JIP has a seat on the Board of Directors.

The JIP is building on a database originally developed by the Group of 7. The database will support BOP system reliability, integrity and availability assessments; monitor BOP component reliability performance trends over time; and support improvements in BOP testing and maintenance decisions.  It will also support long-term improvements in BOP system design.

About IADC

Since 1940, the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) has exclusively represented the worldwide oil and gas drilling industry. IADC's mission is to catalyze improved performance for the drilling industry by enhancing operational integrity and championing better regulation to facilitate safer, cleaner and more efficient drilling operations worldwide. For more information, visit the IADC website at www.iadc.org.