Digital Self-Verification Sustainably Improves Safety Performance, Positively Shifts Culture

_ This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper OTC 35562, “Digital System of Self-Verification Sustainably Improves Safety Performance and Positively Shifts Safety Culture,” by Indira Ramjit, SPE, and Charisse Salim, Tucker Energy Services, and Andrew Briggs, BP, et al. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Copyright 2025 Offshore Technology Conference. _ Self-verification (SV) is a systematic process used for verifying effective implementation of requirements not limited to those from regulations, statutes, internal company systems, and client organizations. An effective SV process promotes a safety-first culture, helps minimize external audits/inspections, and ensures efficient operations compliant with all necessary rules and regulations. The complete paper discusses the steps taken by Tucker Energy Services (TES) to implement a risk-based SV process through a bespoke software application. Organizational Context TES is a well-operations contractor that operates an integrated-management system certified to International Organization for Standardization standards (9001:2015, 14001:2015, and 45001:2018). The company operates internationally in regions such as Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela, and Colombia. The services provided are classified as high-risk; the scope of services is detailed in Fig. 1. These services are planned internally and executed at client-operator sites, including land and offshore rigs, platforms, and industrial plants. Given the high-risk nature of these activities, the organization has implemented a novel SV system to complement its existing safety barriers and controls used to manage risk. Collaboration With Client The requirement for formal SV was highlighted to regional contractors at health, safety, and environment engagement sessions driven by BP. This was based on that operator’s adoption of an industry-standard approach to safety management and safety performance, leveraging industry resources through the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers. BP, the client, outlined its internal SV program built on a bowtie-barrier model and prompted its contractors involved in high-consequence activities to adopt a similar approach toward SV, including the following main features: - A software-systems approach with user-friendly interfaces focused on core data capture for trending, analysis, generation of insights, and improvement actions - Checklists developed with the input of operations teams - Checklists performed by field operations personnel and supervisors - Checklists categorized by major risk and barrier type being tested - Ability to score each checklist and stop the job as necessary if scoring reveals critical safety concerns - Ability to generate actions that are tracked to closure based on checklist findings - Health condition of the barriers associated with the bowtie risk graphically represented by dashboards and other methods - Dashboards reviewed and analyzed to assess areas of weakness requiring intervention for improved safety performance These characteristics were considered in the development of a more-sustainable and -effective SV program for TES and subcontractors. Implementing a New SV Process TES adopted the process approach when designing, developing, implementing, and improving the automated SV process to improve safety performance. The approach is described in Fig. 3 of the complete paper.