Bureau Veritas publishes guidelines for Offshore Access Systems

Leading international classification society Bureau Veritas has developed guidelines for walk-to-work (W2W) motion compensated Offshore Access Systems (OAS) which are used to transfer industrial personnel to and from offshore installations. Guidance Note NI629 Certification of Offshore Access Systems provides a clear and comprehensive overview of the safety principles and technical requirements for the design, manufacturing and operation of reliable and dependable equipment for the safe transfer of personnel at sea.

Matthieu de Tugny, Senior Vice-President and Head of Offshore, Bureau Veritas, says, "Getting people safely onto and off unmanned platforms and wind farm towers offshore has become a big issue. Walk-to-Work OAS can provide significant safety, operability and/or cost advantages over more traditional personnel transfer methods such as personnel basket or capsule lifts, step-over from high speed crew transfer vessels and helicopter transfers. We see a lot of new vessel types emerging with these motion-compensated gangways and it is imperative that the industry has a standard against which to assess their safety and to help develop safe new designs.”

Two different offshore access technologies have emerged: passive transfer gangways, which are first connected to the offshore installation and then put in free-flow mode for personnel transfer, and active transfer gangways which remain motion compensated during personnel transfer. The safety issues and critical components, which differ from one category to the other, require special attention to ensure safe and reliable operation.

Says De Tugny, “With these new guidelines the regulatory gap into which personnel transfer between offshore support vessels and offshore installations could fall has been closed.”

Guidance Note NI629 can be downloaded from www.veristar.com.

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Bureau Veritas is a world leader in laboratory testing, inspection and certification services. Created in 1828, the Group has more than 66,000 employees in around 1,400 offices and laboratories located all across the globe. Bureau Veritas helps its clients to improve their performance by offering services and innovative solutions in order to ensure that their assets, products, infrastructure and processes meet standards and regulations in terms of quality, health and safety, environmental protection and social responsibility. Bureau Veritas is listed on Euronext Paris and belongs to the Next 20 index.

Compartment A, ISIN code FR 0006174348, stock symbol: BVI.

Corporate website www.bureauveritas.com/marine-and-offshore

Marine client portal www.veristar.com  

Contacts:

Philippe Boisson

Bureau Veritas

+33 (0)1 55 24 71 98

philippe.boisson@bureauveritas.com