“The Episode consultant really focused on making our systems and processes work better for us, not just help us comply with ISO 9001. He was able to work with Department Heads and Senior Management to shape their strategic thinking about quality and business objectives without telling them what they had to do because the standard says so.”
Karim D’Alessandro, HSE Manager at Shelf Drilling Inc.
Summary
Shelf Drilling is a provider of jack-up rigs, used to drill oil wells in the seabed for the oil and gas industry. They are headquartered in Dubai with rig operations in 2014 in 12 countries employing over 4,000 staff across four core operating regions.
One of their clients, ENI, is an integrated energy company employing more than 84,000 people in 83 Countries in the world. In an audit of Shelf Drilling by them it was highlighted that Shelf Drilling needed a more comprehensive quality management system. As a result, Shelf Drilling engaged Episode to work with them to meet ENI’s requirements, using ISO 9001 quality management systems. American Petroleum Institute’s API Q Spec 1 was also incorporated.
About the Organisation
Shelf Drilling is the world’s largest contractor of jack-up rigs.
They are headquartered in Dubai with rig operations in 2014 in 12 countries across four core operating regions – Southeast Asia, India, West Africa and MENAM (Middle East, North Africa & Mediterranean). Their strategy is to maintain a sole focus on shallow water drilling services.
What the issues were
Shelf Drilling is involved in a complex and hazardous industry where any lapse in quality can literally be life-threatening. Their system and processes are comprehensive and thoroughly documented. However, one of their major clients, ENI, identified five areas that they needed Shelf Drilling to improve upon.
In places these represented a need for significant change at the most senior levels in the company. Already busy people, the Senior Management Team and Departmental Heads were focused on the day job, and were concerned that potentially these changes were going to be a distraction. A sensitive and pragmatic approach was called for to ensure the company achieved the objectives and had their staff buy-in.
What we did about it
Episode worked closely with the Senior Management of Shelf Drilling to carry out its own review of the quality management system (which, interestingly, flagged other areas that could be improved that ENI had not commented on). We decided that the ISO standard, ISO 9001, quality management systems, was the best model to use (having also considered the American Petroleum Institute quality standard, API Spec Q1 9th Edition).
At the same time, workshops were arranged for the key employees within Shelf Drilling to explain what we were trying to achieve, gain their buy-in to the objectives, and ensure they adopted the system on an ongoing basis in their day to day activities.
All Department Heads were met to work through the changes required and how they might affect their Department. The emphasis was making everything work more effectively, not make them comply.
Finally, the system was re-engineered to help Shelf Drilling operate better and address the issues highlighted by ENI.
The outcome
ENI re-audited Shelf Drilling and commented how well the issues they previously identified had been addressed. They are still a customer of Shelf Drilling.
We are now working with Shelf Drilling to decide whether to comply with API Q Spec 1, and to have the system certified to it and ISO 9001:2015.
The Director that appointed the Episode consultant moved to a different drilling company (Sea Drill, headquartered in Chiswick, UK) and subsequently approached him to help them comply with API Q Spec 1.