Before selling its stake in Wheatstone to Woodside, Apache Corporation contracted EMAS Chiyoda Subsea to undertake project management, engineering, transportation and subsea installation of an electro-hydraulic steel tube umbilical, two heavy lift subsea manifolds, flying leads and jumpers as well as the procurement, fabrication, transportation and installation of diverless tie-in spools for the Julimar development.

BAE's scope included fabrication, testing, coating and loadout of 10-off diverless subsea tie-in and jumper spools and associated installation aids and sea-fastening between August 2015 and May 2016.

BAE's job on Julimar was completed in May-June.

A challenging 24/7 post-metrology schedule was required to achieve the project milestones, and BAE told Energy News that almost 400 personnel were inducted on-site and were involved in the successful delivery of the spools.

BAE business development manager Mark Sawyer told Energy News during a site visit last week to the company's facility at the Australian Marine Complex in Henderson, south of Perth, that both Woodside and EMAS were "intimately" involved with the project from day one.

Both had project teams on site full time so all three companies had hands-on input in day-to-day decisions, including the creating of a project specific ‘hazard identification map'.

This map identified the risks associated with specific project phases and was a visual aid for all personnel involved with Julimar to raise awareness of hazards present in the construction area.

Mitigation plans were then drawn up to stop incidents happening.

The project also spawned new innovations, including a new rubber cutting tool designed by local company Scope Engineering.

BAE worked with the sub-contractor to come up with a concept that could be integrated with existing clam shell pipe cutting technology, to mechanically remove pre-coated rubber insulation from project pipes in a safer manner in lieu of manual removal methods.

For this particular innovation, BAE project manager Lee Gallagher said "… Safety was the main driver in developing the tool, whilst there was also an unexpected benefit of increased efficiencies in time taken to remove the coating".

"Safety was something we recognised from day one with all three companies bringing best practice to the table, aligning ourselves with what Woodside and EMAS' requirements and key drivers were and all companies contributing and learning from each other," Sawyer added.

"You can always have the master-servant relationship on any major project, but it certainly wasn't adopted on this one, and everyone was on the same page together working collaboratively to drive towards zero harm."

Sub-contractors such as Scope and Process Chemicals were also involved with all the risk assessments at Julimar on a day-to-day basis.

"To deliver a project of this size successfully in the timescale required by the client requires a big collaborative effort, not only between BAE Systems, EMAS-Chiyoda and Woodside, but also with our sub-contractors," Gallagher said.

"By working collaboratively with all stakeholders, we have not only delivered on successful project outcomes but also increased safety awareness within our clients and sub-contractors organisations which has provided a prime opportunity to leverage and learn from one another".

While collaboration can sometimes be hindered by commercial-in-confidence restrictions, Sawyer said there were no boundaries when it comes to safety.

"You socialise safety … and that's not just a buzz word, which means no one owns safety initiatives," he said.

"Hypothetically, say we have an incident and someone gets hurt, we could have our client sitting above us then reporting back to the end user, which is Woodside. You could almost say, ‘well, they're arms apart, it's got nothing to do with us'. That wasn't the case in this project because everyone was involved and was accountable.

"There were no grey areas; likewise if one of our clients or subcontractors personnel had got hurt, we would have managed the incident collectively."

When a minor incident occurred all three parties were involved with the investigation, providing feedback into what could have been done better and how the process could be made safer.

"It was driven from day one from Woodside, to EMAS, to ourselves that it was going to be a collaborative focus and that we were all going to be held accountable," Sawyer said.

"It certainly came down from Woodside that this will be an incident free, zero-harm project, and there was no lip service here. Together we delivered."