Observations and lessons learnt in the geophysical survey industry

1. Lessons learned and
observations from my
experience in the Geophysical
survey industry

2. When it all goes wrong
A tugboat on fire in Kokas harbour, West Papua, Indonesia.
One person very badly burnt – medevaced to jakarta fate unknown (possible fatality), one
person less serious burns.
Petrol was mistakenly used to refuel a hot/live kerosene stove in the galley.
The tug and barge were supplying water to a seismic crew operated by one of the largest
seismic contractors in the world – no audit, no checks, no crew management present – crew
ERP was not used in order to hide the incident from the client.

3. Cable boat collision with an island at night
Root causes:
Inadequate - Line management, training, management of change

4. Fast crew boat collision with a barge at 22 knots
Crew change for a seismic streamer vessel in the Persian Gulf.
29 injuries, 3 of them were LTI’s – cause not yet known

5. Chaseboat for streamer operations in India, its course was erratic and appeared to be having
difficulty steering, skipper said it was because he had a full load of fuel.
When I inspected the steering gear the key locking the rudder head to the pintle had broken,
pieces of welding rod and hacksaw blade had been hammered in to try and lock it.
Always check, always validate, always confirm.

6. A young party manager with only land experience purchased this dugout to be used
as a line handling vessel to pass LCT berthing lines to the dolphin in the background.
Land crew management + multiple large vessels on OBC = Disaster waiting to happen
if not closely supervised by the client

7. 2000 psi high pressure airlines corroded, damaged, bent and crimped –
extremely dangerous.

8. Two very different standards of dive teams
Divers are needed on OBC crews to remove ropes and cables from vessel propulsion systems

9. Different standards of support vessels used in the industry

10. Hearts and minds
Forming good relationships with local people is important
Clockwise from bottom left – BP ladies with the King of Arguni Island, Rescue of a
local boat that had been adrift overnight, chocolate for the kids at Goras, afternoon
tea at the queen of Arguni’s house.

11. Need a airport? Build one, and build a jetty to service the airport.
Local jetty unsafe to transfer personnel? Easy, buy some timber and repair
it.

12. Before job start up
Check and audit all the boats, conduct towing drills, everyone must have sea
survival training, conduct oil spill and medevac drills

13. 9 large vessels and 250 people afloat, keeping them all safe takes some
doing but we did it.

14. Scouting a site for a helipad

15. In water maintenance and fishing gear removal

16. Check out local food suppliers and transport services. Don’t disturb human
remains, get permission to install tide gauges and other instruments

17. A piston corer activating at a depth of 1196 metres – geo technical survey
for a pipeline offshore West Australia

18. Anchor handling for OBC recording vessel stern anchor

19. Helicopter rotor blade made contact with superstructure. The ship then had
to go into port for helicopter removal by crane.

20. Inline refueling – if the towing hawser is longer than the fuel hose, then the hose
will break
Badly tangled seismic cables caused by failure of tow point on a deflector vane
– planned maintenance and inspections would have prevented this

21. ROV planting a recording node on a GOM seismic survey, this one will have to be
picked up and re-planted as it has slid down slope.

22. Remnants of war – Japanese fuel tanker with bullet holes, jap truck and bomb being
used as a church bell, all in the Tomage area W Papua.

23. When the job is finished make sure the contractor cleans up sites used on shore
– the contractor was going to leave the mess seen in pic below left
Give the good guys a safety award.