1.

0 ABSTRACT

FPSO Perintis is selected to be the object of this work place assignment. The ship is

belongs to M3nergy FPSO Perintis Sdn Bhd which is one of wholly owned subsidiaries under

M3nergy Berhad. It was established to spearhead the Group's foray into the upstream oil and gas

sector.

The objectives of this reports are to identify the danger, to access the risk and to point out

the most critical hazards at the respective workplace. Conjunction with that, the risk control plan

need to be proposed and suggestion on the review of control measures need to be highlihted for

the most critical hazards which is going to be identified in the process.

In order to accomplish it, various method were used such as reviewing the previous

incident reports, workplace inspection/observation, highlighted issues in Safety and Health

Committee Meeting and interviewing staff for information and feedbacks.

As a result, there are 10 hazards have been identified for this assesment. The most critical

safety hazard is falling objects meanwhile the most critical health hazard is exposure to excessive

noise. Both of the critical hazards are further assessed in determining the control risk measure as

well as the impact to the workers and company.

Recommendations are listed down for suggestion in order to further enhance the risk

control program as well as to highlihght the benefit of it to the management.

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2.0 INTRODUCTION

M3nergy FPSO Perintis Sdn Bhd incorporated in 1997, is a wholly owned subsidiary of

M3NERGY Berhad. It was established to spearhead the Group's foray into the upstream oil and

gas sector. Fully committed to the aim of becoming a dominant player in the industry, M3nergy

FPSO Perintis Sdn Bhd has invested substantially in shaping and harnessing its FPSO/FSO

engineering, project management, operations and maintenance capabilities. A 9-year leasing

contract with Petronas Carigali saw the emergence of FPSO Perintis, which started production in

May 1999 in the MASA oilfield, situated about 155 kilometers offshore from Terengganu,

Malaysia.

FPSO stands for Floating Production, Storage and Offloading. An FPSO system is an

offshore production facility that is typically ship-shaped and stores crude oil in tanks located in

the hull of the vessel. The crude oil is periodically offloaded to shuttle tankers or ocean-going

barges for transport to shore. FPSO’s may be used as production facilities to develop marginal

oil fields or fields in deepwater areas remote from the existing pipeline infrastructure. The FPSO

was given name as “Perintis” which means pioneer because it is the first FPSO in Malaysia

before other FPSOs start to come in and become active competitors.

The FPSO operates 24-hours a day and there are two working shifts, day shift and night

shift which the shift will be changing during morning meeting. Though, the work schedule is

base on 2 weeks at the offshore and 2 weeks onshore. It employs about 75 staff which

categorized in five different departments such as marine, maintenance, system, production and

construction. The activities onboard includes operation and maintenance of floating and fixed

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offshore facilities, process plant operations, marine system operations, plant machinery

maintenance, provision of maintenance support services and also onshore supply base support.

The FPSO is headed by Operation Installation Manager (OIM) who is the Captain of the

ship and reports to the Operations Superintendent who is based at the head office in Kuala

Lumpur. The OIM is assisted by a group of supervisors and senior technicians as shown in the

organization chart in the Appendix I. Besides, Safety & Health Officer (SHO) is employed to

help OIM and assisting him in any issues which related to health, safety and environment. The

site also has formed Safety and Health Committee as required under OSHA’s Regulations. The

committee is chaired by OIM and assisted by SHO as secretary. Five supervisors, 1 Radio

Medic, 1 Bosun and 1 Campboss are selected to be the member of Health, Safety and

Evironemnet Committee. Please refer to Appendix II for details.

Generally, FPSO deals and handles raw crude as it main activity. Raw crude for 3 nearby

fields which include Malong, Sotong and Anding are transport to FPSO for temporary storage.

These 3 fields are known as MASA fields which is the acronym of the 3 fields. The raw crude

will undergo simple separation process in order to separate its components to gas, oil and water.

After the separation process, the oil will be stored in cargo tanks meanwhile the gas will be

directly transports to Sotong Collectore Platform before it reaches onshore gas terminal at

Kerteh, Terengganu. The produced water will be treated properly until it safe to be discharged to

the sea.

By understanding its nature of operating process, principally the associated hazards will

be based on the fire and explosion hazards since the FPSO contained the highly flammable and

highly explosive materials in its cargo tanks and also in its pipelines. However, all of these

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hazards are strictly monitor and preventive control plans are already in placed due to the high

level of safety precautions and measures which already regulated and mentioned in the law as

well as in the contract with the client. Nevertheless, there are still a lot of potential hazards at the

FPSO that need to be identified, assess and evaluate in order to know its risk to the human,

environment and property. As a result, a risk control plan will be implemented to accommodate

for its preventive and corrective measures.

3.0 OBJECTIVE

The objectives of this project as per listed below:

i. To identify, rank and prioritize hazards which occur at the workplace

ii. To identify the most critical hazards and suggest the appropriate control measures

iii. To review the effectiveness of existing control measures

iv. To highlight hazards and control measures to the management

4.0 METHODOLOGY

4.1 Definition

4.11 Hazard

A source or a situation with a potential for harm in terms of human injury or ill-health, damage

to property, damage to the environment or a combination of these.

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4.1.2 Danger

Relative exposure to hazard.

4.1.3 Risk

A combination of the likelihood of an occurrence of a hazardous event with specified period or

in specified circumstances and the severity of injury or damage to the health of people, property,

environment or any combination of these caused by the event.

4.1.4 Risk Assessment

The process of evaluating the risks to safety and health arising from hazards at work and the

flowchart can be seen in Appendix III at the back.

4.2 Classification of hazards

Before risk assessment can be made it is useful to understand the nature of hazards and its

source. The source of hazards as per below:

Source Example
Man Human behaviors, unsafe acts
Machinery Installation, layout and design of equipments
Materials Substances such as chemicals and gases use in the workplace
Method The way people carry out their work
Media Workplace condition such as air quality, ventilation, lighting, noise and
vibration
Table 1: Source of hazards

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The actual hazards that can cause harm can be classified in six categories:

Hazard Example of hazards

Mechanical Struck by, pinched, stabbed, fall
Electrical Using improper socket, exposed wires
Biological Exposed to virus, bacteria, fungus
Chemical Exposed to corrosive and toxic chemicals
Ergonomics Repetitive works
Physicosocial Stress
Table 2: Categories of hazards

4.3 Identification of safety and health hazards

The following methods are used to identify safety and health hazards at FPSO Perintis:

i. Review of Previous Incident Reports

Incident report is one of the most useful ways to identify hazards at workplace. The

report (please refer to Appendix IV for a sample) will highlight the root causes of the

accident and the actions required to prevent recurrence.

ii. Workplace Inspection/Observation

Workplace inspection is carried out twice in a month by OIM, Client representative,

contractor representative and SHO. In addition, ad-hoc inspections and audits are

carried out almost every month. These inspections and observations will help to

identify potential hazards, unsafe acts, unsafe conditions and non-compliances to

safety regulations. Please refer to Appendix V and VI for a sample of workplace

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 inspection form. Any non-compliance will be compiled, recorded, tracked, and

circulated to relevant Head of Department for immediate actions.

iii. Issues Raise During Safety Health Committee Meeting

The committee meets once in every 2 weeks and comprises members from both

management and workers’ representatives. One of its functions is to investigate

hazards arising from members’ feedback. Refer to Appendix VII for sample.

iv. Interview with Staff

Interviews are conducted by asking the staff in the section the type of activities carry

out by them, health related complaints, working procedure, usage and issuance of

personal protective equipment and history of occupational diseases.

4.4 Risk Assessment

Qualitative Risk Assessment exercises are then carried out to access the hazards. Risk

Assessment basically defines the consequence and the likelihood of a risk event occurring.

Consequence indicates the severity of a risk event and defines by numerical values from 1 to 4.

The likelihood is the frequency and/or possibility of a risk event occurring and expressed in

alphabetical order starting from A to E. Based on these, the risk is ranked and the ranking matrix

is represented by Table 3, shown below. The description of the numerical values and alphabetical

orders are also indicated in the table.

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 LIKELIHOOD Known to be a Known to occur Could occur Not likely to Rare

common or repeating (has happened in (heard of occur

CONSEQUENCES occurrence the past) happening)

(E) (D) (C) (B) (A)

High(20) High(19) High(17) Medium(14) Medium(10)

Fatality or permanent disability (4)

High(18) High(16) Medium(13) Medium(9) Medium(6)

Serious Injury (3)

High(15) Medium(12) Medium(8) Low(5) Low(3)

Moderate Injury (2)

Medium(11) Medium(7) Low(4) Low(2) Low(1)

Minor Injury (1)

Table 3: Risk Ranking Matrix

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In summary, risk is:

Risk = Likelihood x Consequence

Based on the above method, all risks can be assessed, ranked, and then prioritized.

4.5 Hazard Prioritization

Risk ranking will facilitate decision making process in administering the risk control

measures. A range of numerical values from 1 to 20 is assigned in the matrix. These numbers

will define a range to relate the importance of risk control measures. Details are described in the

Table 4 below:

Range Action Required Remarks

1-5  No action is required

 No additional controls are required.  Manage by routine procedure/risk

6 - 10 worth accepting with monitoring.
 Monitor the effectiveness and
adequacy

of existing control measures.

 Risk reduction needed within  Considerable input from Senior

11 - 15 certain time frame. Management level is required

 Risk reduction needed immediately  Senior Management’s involvement

16 - 20 needed.
 No work should be done until risk
is adequately control
Table 4: Hazard Prioritization

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5.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

By using the method which has been described in the Section 4, all of the hazards which

give impact to the safety and health to the employees have been identified and listed as per

below. The hazards are categorized as safety hazards and health hazard.

5.1 Safety Hazards

5.1.1 Fire and Explosion

If there is source of ignition nearby, fire and explosion could be the most potential

hazards at this area since FPSO deals and handle with highly flammable materials which

is crude oil. Among the sources are sparks from welding apparatus or grinding machine.

Besides, this hazard can occur if there are employees who smoke at the worksite.

5.1.2 Accidental Gas Released

Accidental gas release at the pipelines or valves could pollute the ambient atmosphere at

the work area which can cause suffocation, nausea, dizziness and asphyxiation to the

exposed workers. If the gas released is in a big amount, it can lead to death.

5.1.3 Working in Confined Space Area – Oxygen Lacking

Working in a confined space can exposed workers to the situation of oxygen lacking

especially if the workers carry out the work in the manhole, vessels or work area without

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 proper ventilation and the depth is more than 2 meters with limited working space and

exit.

5.1.4 Falling Objects

All the works which involve lifting objects with crane have the potential to create

hazards. If the luffing wire and slinging ropes are not secure properly, it can cause the

materials to slip and crushed on the workers. Beside, manual handling is also a

contributing factor of falling object hazards. Without practicing proper housekeeping

activities after the work done, it also can cause equipments to possibly fall from its

storage location on workers and lead to injuries.

5.1.5 Slips and Trips - Slippery Condition

In dealing with crude oils and chemicals, slips and trips hazard is the most hazard which

possibly encountered by the workers. Oil droplets and chemical spills can easily be seen

everywhere on the deck which create slippery condition to the workplace.

5.1.6 Electrical Shocked

Welding machine and electrical powered hand tools can cause electricity shocked to the

workers if they are not practicing safe working procedures. Besides, the equipments must

always be inspected and checked for any damaged in order to prevent any accidents while

using them. For the welding machine, must properly earthed and the wiring have to be

inspected before carry out the work.

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5.2 Health Hazards

5.2.1 Chemical Splash

Direct contact with corrosive chemicals such as acid or alkaline caused by splash will

burn the skin or body. Irritant chemicals cause skin to flare up. Skin will be red, rash and

itch. Chemicals can enter the body through inhalation, absorption and also ingestion. This

could happen when the workers doing the chemical transfer from the bulk containers to

the chemical tanks.

5.2.2 Exposure to Excessive Noise

Excessive noise which produced from turbine generator, engine and other machineries

can cause damage to the hearing. Workers who are working at the process area highly

exposed to this hazard. Losses of hearing and psychological stress are the health effects

of noise hazard.

5.2.3 Heat stress

FPSO which located at the middle of the sea is exposed to the sunlight directly during the

day. Working on this ship, at the open space which do not have any shade can cause

workers to overly sweat and leads to fatigues, dizziness and faint due to prostration and

dehydration.

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5.2.4 Ergonomics – Back Pain and Injured Muscles

Lifting heavy loads can caused workers to have back pain which lead to muscle injuries.

Pressure on the blood vessels, muscles and tendons due to contact stress usually occurs

when hand or power tools are used which can result to numbness of the fingers and also

the body part supporting the tools.

5.3 CRITICAL HAZARDS

All the hazards listed in the previous subsection were assessed by using the risk ranking

matrix in order to know how serious the risk is and refer to the Appendix VIII. As for the output,

the most critical hazard has been identified for both categories.

The most critical safety hazard is falling objects and the most critical health hazard is

excessive noise. Refer to the Appendix IX.

5.3.1 Safety Hazards – Falling Objects

Load usually need lifting either using manual handling or using lifting equipment which

use to assist in manual handling activities such as crane pulleys or trolleys. In other words, lifting

objects or loads up to the certain heights have the potential of falling hazards if the load or

objects do not tighten properly or the slinging ropes and luffing wires not well secured.

These conditions can leads to accidents such as release of the load being held, crushed by

load being put down or falling together with the load being handled. All the mentioned accidents

may cause injury to the workers. These injuries can be on both external and internal parts of the

body such as:

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 i. External

 Wounds

 Scratches

 Cuts and Tears

ii. Internal

 Torn ligaments and muscles

 Damage to joints on knees, ankle bones, shoulders, arms

 Slipped disc

 Hernia

 Rheumatism

5.3.2 Health Hazard – Excessive Noise

Permissible exposure limits may vary for different types of noise. For continuous noise,

the standard is at 90dbA for 8 hours of exposure while the action level is at 85dbA. The ceiling

limit is 115dbA. For impulse noise, the ceiling limit is 140dbA and there is no determined

standard or action level.

Workers will only be exposed to the excessive noise when they are out from the living

quarters since the whole area of FPSO is the working area. The process area, engine room and

construction area will produce the unwanted sound which lead to noise and can escalate to the

excessive noise which can contribute to the health hazards. Health effects related to noise

exposure can be divided into two categories:

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 i. Damage and Loss of Hearing

 Conduction due to the damage to the ear drum and/or ossicles bones in the middle

ear. Usually in this kind of condition is due to high impulse noise and only affects

one ear

 Neuro-sensory due to damage to the hair follicles in the inner ear. Damage or loss

of hearing is due to overexposure to loud noise, in most cases to both ear

ii. Stress

 Psychological stress (in the form of emotional disturbances and loss of temper)

may be harmful to the individual’s well being. It may also cause increase of high

blood pressure

 These disturbances may affect worker concentration and make it difficult for him

to pinpoint/identify hazardous situations and damages to machinery

5.4 IMPACT TO THE ORGANIZATION

The identified hazards will not only affecting the workers but it will also affecting the

organization whether directly or indirectly. Many organizations do not realize how much an

incident or accident could cost them in productivity. Many also mistakenly believe that they are

covered by insurance for most of the cost arising from the incidents or accidents.

Comparison can be made of the ratio of insured costs to uninsured costs. This is

represented as an iceberg showing the full costs of accidents including those hidden below the

water line. The visible part of iceberg is representing the insured cost meanwhile the hidden part

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is the uninsured cost which 8 to 36 times greater than the insured cost. The impacts are listed as

per below:

i. Idle workers because of disrupted work

ii. Work delays and work reassignments

iii. Loss in productivity and quality

iv. Worker recruitment problem

v. Cost of replacing a worker and training

vi. Loss of income

vii. Repair of replacement of damaged equipment

viii. Possible overtime expenses due to work delays

ix. Possible payment of fines

x. Loss of profit

xi. Temporary labour

xii. Loss of expertise / experience supplies

6.0 RECOMMENDATION

It is employer responsibility to the come up with an appropriate and effective plan to

tackle all the identified risks in order to manage the risks until the risk degree drops to the level

as low as possible and manageable. The employer should follow the hierarchy when considering

the control measures.

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 There are two main choices in order to control the risks of particular hazard which are

eliminating it and removing it from the process or accept the hazard but lower down the risk until

it can be considerer safe. The hierarchy of risk control can be viewed in the Appendix X.

6.1 Control Measures

6.1.1 Safety Hazard – Falling Objects

After thoroughly following the hierarchy of risk control, the following control measures

are being implemented to reduce the risk:

i. Remove old, damage, and defect ropes and wires

ii. Substitute the heavy loads with the smaller loads for manual lifting

iii. Isolate the lifting equipments which already passed the due date of inspection

iv. Install toe-board on the work platform

v. Conduct schedule maintenance programme for lifting equipments and monitor its

validity of Certificate of Fitness

vi. Formulate of safe operating procedure for lifting activities

vii. Provide training to all workers to enhance safety awareness

viii. Ensure housekeeping activities are conducted immediately after the work done

ix. Check the position of equipments and ensure its been stored or hanged in proper

condition and bearing

x. Always remind employees to be aware with working area, safety signs and safe

working load

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 xi. Carry out safety audits on personal protective equipments regarding its efficiency

especially for safety helmets and safety boots

6.1.2 Health Hazard – Excessive Noise

After thoroughly following the hierarchy of risk control, the following control measures

are being implemented to reduce the risk:

i. Substitution of less noisy equipments

ii. Isolation of noisy equipments from main worker areas

iii. Reduction of exposure to noise by rotating shifts between high and low noise work

areas

iv. Training and lectures to workers on safe work practices and health effects related to

noise exposure

v. Have a written policy to ensure safe work practices such as the proper and safe use of

personnel protective equipments

vi. Conduct exposure monitoring to measure varying noise levels

vii. Conduct health monitoring which include ear checks and eudiometry tests

viii. Review the noise reduction rate of ear muff and ear plug before purchase

6.2 Review of Control Measures

All the control measures need to be reviewed in order to determine its effectiveness in

controlling the risk. The output of the reviewing process will be brought up and considered as an

enhancement program. The details as per below:

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 i. To conduct periodic safety audits and workplace inspections to monitor compliance

level and effectiveness.

ii. Some of the controls measure which require comprehensive planning and budget will

be included in the Safety Management Programme under OHSAS 18001. The

programme then will be tracked, reviewed, and monitored periodically.

iii. The effectiveness of the control measures could also ascertained by reviewing

incident report. In the event of an accident, the Job Safety Analysis for that particular

activity will have to be reviewed, in which all existing control measures will be

looked at again.

iv. Another way to gauge the control measures is by monitoring health status of every

staff in this area to look for the possibility of any occupational diseases. If there are

signs of any occupational diseases as a result from activities in this section, some of

the control measures are most likely not effective.

6.3 Benefits

As stated in the Occupational, Safety and Health Act 1994 (Act 154), employer shall put

extensive care for his employees’ safety, health and also welfare. It is the duty of employer and

responsibilities which he needs to carry out. It is important for the employer to cater for safety

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and health of his employees since they are the assets of the company who run and contribute to

the company’s profit.

Serious attention should be given to the most critical hazards in order to prevent any

accident from occurs. Accidents not only generate loss but also can give greater bad impact on

the operation and also production of the business. It is such a waste if the company loss the

experienced workers due to the accident which occurs from the ignorance of the effect of

hazards.

Various control measures already been highlighted in order to prevent from accident to

happen. Indeed, cooperation from employer and employees also very important to ensure all the

control measures can be applied and running smoothly. By doing that, a lot of benefits can be

gained by the company such as:

i. High safety awareness among employer and employees

ii. Developing the employees to be more competent and expert workers who particular

about safety

iii. Better, safer and more conducive work environment will be created and this will

greatly benefit all employees

iv. Exposing employer and employees about the risk and danger of the activity if they are

doing it without following the safe work procedures

v. Reducing the hazards, prevent them from happen and eliminate the safety and health

hazards from the working area. Conjunction with that, near misses and accidents

could be avoided.

vi. Reducing the accident cost

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 vii. Guidelines to the employer on how to identify, asses, rank and control risks

associated with activities in other subsidiaries

viii. Giving opportunity to the respective personnel to enrich and apply the knowledge and

experience in risk assessment and risk control fields.

7.0 REFERENCES / SOURCES

i. Book Reference : Occupational Safety And Health Act & Regulations

MDC Publisher Printer Sdn Bhd
9th Edition 2002

Factory and Machinery Act & Regulations

MDC Publisher Printer Sdn Bhd
13th Edition 2002

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8.0 APPPENDICES

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