The Application Of The ISM Code To The Off-Shore Drilling Industry: The Saipem Experience Available to Purchase

What are we: either rigs working on ships or ships which host rigs on board? Once again has been underlined the critic point of Saipem and of the whole Off-shore Industry, which is this dual nature that at the same time feeds criticism and controversy, and, on the other hand, is reason of pride for the continuos performances of excellence, for the goals and the results obtained world-wide and for the consolidation of our market position as one of the leaders in this business. The initial challenge, at the beginning, was hard: the achievement of the certification for the Safety Management System of the Company and of the offshore units. This would have meant to give visibility, through the compulsory IMO regulation ISM Code, of our capacity as managers as well as excellent constructors and drillers. The way to achieve the result has been long and many people, at all level, have been involved at all stages: projecting, document production and revision, auditing, training and general information. This Work has been going for years challenging the Management of the Company in a deep cultural change and, more than ever, the QHSE department and its management system. These efforts now are awarded with the achievement of the certification with full marks, but not without difficulties. The ISM is nothing else than the mirror of the maritime/naval world governed by the IMO, where the Off-shore Industry is put aside in the navigation business, where the class societies lord it and the flag administrations are not even questioned, to avoid ‘to wake the dog up’ and open long term and expensive dispute. For sure is not easy to strike into a system that manages a so complex industry and to understand and digest all its faces; this often causes that the management of the operation side of our rigs to be left aside or not even considered, like if the safety of the naval unit is not effected by this. So if is somebody was waiting ISM Code to get a miraculous answer to the Question, all he's got is that, so far, not even the institutions and the third parties delegated to verify the application of the rules are able to solve it.