Minutes of the Eleventh ICRARD meeting held at the Ohmsett Facility
in New Jersey October 7-8, 2008
Present:
Oyvind Tuntland Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), Norway
(Chairman)
Steve Walker Health and Safety Executive, UK
Walter Bobby Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB), Canada
Sharon Buffington Minerals Management Service (MMS), USA
Eirik Bjerkebaek Petroleum Safety Authority
Matthew Quinney Minerals Management Service (MMS), USA
1. Welcome/introductions
2. Apologies for absence
3. Minutes of ICRARD’s tenth meeting held in Stavanger, Norway on September 12 & 13, 2007 and new matters
The minutes issued by PSA were accepted as a true record. It was confirmed that the action Items had been completed. There were no new matters.
4. Approve agenda, identify and agree on any other business
The agenda circulated prior to the meeting was approved. No items were identified under any other business at that point.
5. Review of ICRARD website and its future development
Matthew Quinney briefed members on the PSA’s experience in stewardship of the ICRARD website www.icrard.org since its launch in October 2004.
Monitoring of usage statistics for the website indicated that there was a good level of interest . This indicates that the website has been used extensively as a source of information about R&D activities as regards HSE in the petroleum activities.
ICRARD members had targeted groups, marketing, content, involvement of all ICRARD's members, as well as an evaluation of the websites included in the ICRARD search engine.
A discussion followed in which members gave their feedback on the website and suggestions as to how it might be improved and developed.
Summing up the discussion, Matt noted the strong support and willingness of members to devote further efforts to increase its effectiveness as a tool for information sharing, both between regulators and in the wider international oil and gas community. The authorities' technical specialists should benefit from active use of the website. The search engine in particular is a practical tool for obtaining an overview of completed, ongoing or planned R&D activities. The industry is an obvious target group for ICRARD and the website. Research communities often initiate R&D activities. Members contacted those less active ICRARD members and encourage their involvement in populating their pages to ensure the website contains more comprehensive information.
News items should be published on the website more often; this is the responsibility of each member country. The search engine works as intended, and provides unique insight into completed and ongoing R&D activities in the member countries.
As a general conclusion, the members agreed that the website had contributed to ICRARD achieving one of its main objectives when the forum was established; specifically, to contribute to the exchange of information and promote contact between experts across national borders.
Actions:
Marketing - general actions:
· Each ICRARD member is responsible for marketing the website in relevant forum and communities. This can be done e.g. by including www.icrard.org in email signatures, including information about the forum and the website in relevant presentations and spreading the ICRARD brochure to all those who may be interested.
· Steps to obtain more external publicity were agreed on, for example, utilising contacts with national and international associations and linking with their websites.
· Since the research communities are a key target group, ICRARD members are asked to consider special marketing actions aimed at relevant university and research communities.
Marketing - specific measures:
· An ICRARD area/stand was established during the IRF conference in Miami in December 2007. MMS was responsible for practical implementation of the stand. The ICRARD brochure will also be handed out to all participants. HSE tracked down the ICRARD poster and made sure that this is taken to Miami. The PSA brought it back from Miami.
· A link was established to ICRARD from SPE’s website by MMS.
Information on R&D activities - general measures:
· All members are responsible for updating information about relevant R&D activities in the HSE area in their member countries. The Web coordinators in the USA, Canada, UK and Norway can be contacted for publishing information on the website.
· News: To maintain and strengthen interest in the website, each members agreed to increase the number of news items, and each would aim to publish up to four news items per year. Announcement of R&D projects in a member country is an example of a type of information which all members are interested in receiving.
Involvement of all ICRARD members - measures:
· MMS contacts ICRARD members in Brazil and Mexico to gather information on relevant R&D activities in the member countries. If no relevant information is added to the website as a result of this activity, the list of member countries on the front page will be changed.
6. How to determine Research Needs
ICRARD members discussed how research needs are determined by each agency and how we could coordinate. Strategic planning was discussed
7. Guest Presentation:
Ken Malloy of Stress Engineering discussed the projects done for the MMS on a probabilistic approach to risk assessment for managed pressure drilling.
8. National Research Programmes
Members provided electronic presentations on their national research programmes. It was agreed that copies of each country's presentations would be published on the ICRARD website.
9. Future research issues
Discussion concerning ICRARD's future role as initiator for coordinating ongoing activities, or taking the initiative for new R&D activities.
After the 2007 meeting, HSE had prepared a structured overview of members’ offshore research activities based on the comments from the members. The objective was to identify common themes and key areas and issues requiring research and to list contacts for addressing research questions. This would also serve as a means towards identifying potential areas for collaboration on research issues between ICRARD members.
10. Maintaining the ICRARD website
Pursuant to the agreement, MMS assumed responsibility for operation and further development of the website for 2007-2008. HSE will take over responsibility for the website from MMS during 2009.
11. Arrangements for the next meeting
Since previous meetings had been held in Norway and UK the location of the twelfth meeting in 2009 was suggested to be in Canada. A suitable date will be chosen.
12. Review of meeting
Sharon Buffington summed up the meeting and thanked the participants for their contributions.
She pointed out that, during 2008, the ICRARD website has become a good tool for spreading R&D information. The presentations along with associated questions and discussions confirm that many of the challenges in the R&D area are shared by the member countries. This in turn reveals a need for more cooperation.
SUMMARY OF ACTIONS
Actions:
Marketing - general measures:
Information on R&D activities - general measures:
· All members are responsible for updating information on relevant R&D activities in the field of HSE in their member countries. The Web coordinators in the USA, Canada, UK and Norway can be contacted for publication of information on the website.
· News: To maintain and strengthen interest in the website, each members agreed to increase the number of news items.
