Referring to the ongoing Petroleum Engineering standards, the present paper aims to examine the operating reality of the mud pumping systems acting at the well site mainly while drilling. Particularly referring to the floating offshore rigs and installations (and to their constraints) some case histories are summarized as a start point, in order to remark both the fundamental energetic and strategic importance of the rig "pumping heart" while drilling and / or working over the well, and the possible implications upon the out coming risk standards and uncertainty degrees. According to nowadays machinery, devices and different regulations, risk matrix approach will be furthermore performed in order to check and to carefully point out what has still to be improved and the influence degree proper of each of the components of the global system.
Risk is an integral component of today's business environment, more than ever as far as the oil industry is concerned. Globalization, business transformations, sales, merges and acquisitions, competitive pressures and technology advancements are examples of the powerful actions and forces keeping driving business change. Organizations have to be concerned that changes and consequently varying risk exposure levels do occur at a rate faster than they can merge efficiently and effectively. In the light of avoiding both missed opportunity and business crisis situations, due to the sets of methods existing today and the large number of factors influencing the preference for one method over the others, the design and the installation of the drilling and production units has to look for a systematic assessment of the most appropriate practice to reduce the risk to people, the environment and production. An extended study by the Offshore Safety Division of the Health and Safety Executive was published in 1997, entitled "Close proximity study".
