Content:
    Melinda Mayes

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    OMM Web Team

Gulf of Mexico Region

Injuries – 2000  (62 total)

02-Jan-2000 - Callon Petroleum Operating Company

Remarks: The injured person was attempting to raise the escape capsule using a manual wrench. The capsule started to fall and the injured person attempted to set the brake. The hand crank for the winch hit him in the head and his left hand.

10-Jan-2000 - Chevron Corporation

Remarks: The rig travel block struck a floorhand’s foot during an attempt to latch onto another stand of drill pipe while pulling a double stand of drill pipe out of the hole and attempting to guide the stand from the drill basket to the rocking board. The employee's heel/foot was injured, requiring surgery.

11-Jan-2000 - British-Borneo Exploration, Inc.

Remarks: : While the rig crew deployed the IWOCS (Installation and Workover Control System) umbilical lines in the moon pool area of the rig, the pad eye and cable for the umbilical reel broke free and subsequently injured three employees.  The umbilical line was being lowered and clamps were being installed every 50 feet to clamp the hydraulic hoses and electric hoses to a stainless steel guide.  Once the final depth was achieved, the crew lifted the umbilical assembly 35 feet to attach the last clamp located at the waterline and then lowered the assembly back down.  One of the crew detected a split in the electric line coating.  The crew was attempting to lift the assembly back up 5 feet to repair the electric line, when the assembly snagged on something, which overloaded the winch.  Unable to determine why the assembly had hung up, the crew began pulling up the assembly again when the pad eye supporting the sheaves and cable broke free.  The pad eye and cable fell about 30 feet toward the moon pool area, putting tension on the electric hose and pulling the electric hose reel forward, pinning the leg of one employee to the hand rail.  The cable and electric hoses fell on two other employees.  The three injured personnel were transported to the nearest hospital.

15-Jan-2000 - Chevron U.S.A., In

Remarks: A roustabout was injured while being lowered in a personnel basket from the platform to a motor vessel below.  While being lowered, the basket caught on the edge of a toolbox, tilted, and the man fell to the boat deck.

11-Feb-2000 - Exxon Corporation

Remarks: While being moved by the starboard-side crane, a 12-inch overboard hose struck an individual.  The rope that attached the hose to the crane hook broke and fell on a worker standing under the hose. The hose struck the worker’s left shoulder and arm.

13-Feb-2000 - Vastar Resources, Inc.

Remarks: While performing maintenance on the crane, an employee injured his right knee when he planted his foot on the crane platform deck (steel grating) and then turned, twisting his knee.  Surgery was required to repair the knee.

04-Mar-2000 - Santa Fe Snyder Corporation

Remarks: The “Sundowner I” drill crew was testing the BOP System.  An employee was sent into the derrick to grease the leaking Kelly swivel, where he remained after completing the task. The driller directed the employee to move back to the corner of the derrick.  The rig crew proceeded to test the Kelly hose to 5,000 lbs.  The Kelly hose held the 5,000 lbs. of pressure for several moments, and then the Kelly hose burst and parted about 12 inches from the hammer union on the Kelly hose, releasing test fluid. The test fluid struck the employee who had started to descend the derrick via a ladder.  His safety harness kept him from falling out of the derrick.  He managed to climb down out of the derrick by himself but

07-Mar-2000 - BP Amoco Corporation
(also listed as Fire)

Remarks: The deep fat fryer in the rig's kitchen caught on fire. It was extinguished immediately by the CO₂ system located over the deep fat fryer and three 30-lb dry chemical units. Three people were treated for smoke inhalation and one person for a burn.

10-Mar-2000 - Chevron U.S.A., Inc.

Remarks: A derrickhand had both hands caught in the air hoist sheave during an operation to service the crown block. Three fingers on his left hand and two fingers on his right hand were amputated. The drill crew had pulled the drill string out of the hole and was greasing the crown and travel block when the accident occurred. The derrickhand greased the crown sheaves first and descended to the air hoist sheaves. The driller, seeing the derrickhand begin his descent, assumed he had completed his task and was coming down from the derrick. The driller instructed the floorhands to service the traveling block, not realizing that the derrickhand had stopped at the air hoist sheave to service it. The floorhands engaged the air hoist and attempted to lift the person in the riding belt into the derrick. A roustabout on the pipe rack heard the derrickhand in distress.  The operation was stopped immediately and the drill crew rescued the derrickhand. The investigation showed (1) that the drill crew failed to perform a complete Job Safety Analysis before beginning the task and (2) that the drill crew failed to have a meeting on the rig floor and communicate their activities before starting to grease the crown and air hoist sheaves. 

16-Mar-2000 - BP Amoco Corporation

Remarks: A crew member was hit in the head, left arm, and shoulder by a 2-inch drill line that had slipped through the primary clamp while being hoisted by the rig crane. The 2-inch cable clamp failed. It had not been tested before the slipping and cutting of the drill line began. It had last been load tested on March 3, 1999, and should have been re-certified on March 3, 2000. The incident occurred when the running end of the line reached an elevation about 67 feet above the motor shed and the cable pulled through the clamp and fell to the shed on the rig floor.  As the cable fell, it struck a floorhand on the head, face, and upper body, lacerating his head and face, bruising his left upper arm, and fracturing his right shoulder blade.

21-Mar-2000 - LLECO Holdings, Inc.
(also listed as Other)

Remarks: While moving a 25-barrel tank of calcium bromide on the deck of the vessel, the crane snapped at the pedestal and fell onto the vessel below. The crane operator was injured. Sea conditions at the time were 3 to 5 feet seas. The investigation findings showed that the crane operator had minimal experience and operated the crane outside of the designed limitations of the crane by picking up weight outside the crane’s safe load limitations. Also, the on-site supervisor failed to recognize hazards or ignored them. Underlying causes included personnel factors, capability, knowledge and skill, stress, improper motivation, job factors, organizational structure, management and supervision. It was recommended that MMS issue a safety alert to heighten awareness of API Specification 2C, specifically the current recommended ball ring design criteria and those manufactured under different design criteria. For details read OCS Report MMS 2001-010 located on our website at http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/offshore/safety/acc_repo/01-010.pdf.

31-Mar-2000 - Stone Energy Corporation

Remarks: While equipment was being moved from the rig to a workboat, a boom cable parted allowing the boom to collapse onto the boat. The loose cable struck one employee and the other employee fell while trying to avoid the loose cable.

02-Apr-2000 - Chevron U.S.A., Inc.

Remarks: The injured person was in the derrick at the crown with a safety belt on.  He was standing on the traveling block.  An air hoist was being used to raise a tubing-testing cable and tools.  The injured person observed a ¾-inch piece of rope that had become entangled with the cable as it was being raised to him.  He leaned over to retrieve the rope, and his right hand was pulled into a sheave by the cable. Two of his fingers were amputated.

24-Apr-2000 - British-Borneo Exploration, Inc.

Remarks: While running casing, one of the floorhands attempted to perform a last minute function that was forgotten. He was attempting to put a bag on the spider (a piece of casing running equipment). Not knowing the floorhand had moved to his new location, the driller picked up a joint of casing. The casing swung pinning the floorhand between the casing and the spider.    

03-May-2000 - OXY U.S.A., Inc.

Remarks: The artery of an employee’s left upper arm was penetrated by a flying piece of metal chipped from a bolt, which was being removed from the auxiliary winch of the crane. A hammer and center punch was being used at the time to remove the bolt.

04-May-2000 - Amoco Production Company

Remarks: A roustabout leaned against a handrail near the starboard leg of the rig.  The handrail sheared off at the base causing him to fall through the leg well area from the main deck 91 feet to the water.  He suffered minor bruising to his lower chest and several lacerations on arms and legs caused by the barnacle growth on jack-up legs. He returned to work the next day.

04-May-2000 - BP Amoco Corporation

Remarks: A sudden release of pressure caused a ½-inch hydraulic hose with a steel coupling on the end to buck violently and strike the face of the worker who was holding it. The roughneck was using the hose to function test the BOP.  The hose was being filled with light pressure BOP fluid to purge the air from it. The hose was connected to a three-position valve input port that was connected to the downstream side of a regulator coming from the rig BOP accumulator room. The BOP accumulator maintains a pressure of about 5,000 psi. While one worker controlled the rate of purge, another worker held the free end of the hose until it was purged of air and then connected it to the BOP device. The handle of the three-position valve was pushed too far in the wrong direction, and it is believed that 1,600 psi was pumped into the hose inadvertently. An investigation determined that unsafe and unworkmanlike procedures were used during the BOP hose purging operation.

10-May-2000 - Vastar Resources Corporation