Page 58: of Marine News Magazine (May 2014)

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OFFSHORE SAFETY

A lion’s Measure of Total Integrated System Surviv- ability (MOTISS) has been around a long time.

Having previously earned its stripes primarily for naval applications, Alion began to market the service to the offshore oil & gas industry in the messy wake of the Ma- condo disaster. That event brought to the forefront, more than ever, the need to prepare for similar occurrences in the future and more importantly, increase industry’s ability to conduct analysis. Today, a version called MOTISS-IBA (Integrated Barrier Analysis) brings the same comprehen- sive power of MOTISS to the offshore oil industry that previously was only available to the world’s Navies.

According to Bill Cowardin, Assistant Vice President &

Director of Operations at Alion Offshore, industry knows that it has to be innovative in making sure that offshore exploration and production activities are carried out in the lowest risk manner possible. He explains, “At a recent IADC

Conference, one of the oil majors noted that ‘never events’ happen and that when one occurs, it affects the entire indus- try’s license to operate. As the oil and gas industry pushes into harsher, more challenging regions such as ultra deepwa- ter and the Arctic and employs increasingly complex tech- nologies, it is natural that companies will want to perform (and society will demand) increased certainty of safety and risk management. To assess a complex system effectively re- quires an integrated analysis that considers all types of barri- ers: technical, procedural, and operational, acting in concert.

This is what IBA is all about.” But, what is MOTISS – IBA?

Alion’s MOTISS – IBA: Alion’s MOTISS – IBA: the Science of Survivability

An Improved Risk and Safety Assessment Process for the offshore oil & gas industry – and just in time.

By Joseph Keefe

May 2014 58 MN

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