DETAILS
Client name: Confidential
Project name: Determining Minimum Operational Staffing for Offshore Drilling Operations
Date: 2025
Country: Brazil
Description of project
Dolfines was deployed at a Brazilian offshore rig site on behalf of a major company in the oil and gas drilling sector. This project stems from a technical note issued at the end of 2023 by the Brazilian regulator (ANP – Agência Nacional do Petróleo) concerning Human Factors Engineering. The note emphasizes the analysis of safety-critical tasks, minimum staffing requirements, and human reliability assessment.
Dolfines conducted time tracking of critical tasks on drilling rigs to determine the minimum operational staffing required for safe and reliable operations, covering a total of six drillships in Brazil.
Methodology
In a partnership with a Brazilian company, the Dolfines teams developed a solution to determine the minimum staffing required to perform critical tasks on offshore drilling rigs. In general, this solution involves time tracking of the various critical tasks performed.
The process was structured into three main steps:
- Identify the operational personnel involved in the critical tasks
Based on the inventory of critical tasks and associated procedures, spreadsheets were developed to identify the roles and time required to perform each task.
- Assess the time required to perform each critical task
The time required to perform each critical task was clocked and recorded for all relevant personnel. The frequency of each task was obtained from procedures or determined based on the crew’s experience
For this step, a Dolfines inspector boarded the rig to observe task execution, liaise with the crew, and record the time spent on each activity. If certain critical tasks were not performed or could not be executed during the observation period, their duration was estimated through task or procedure simulation.
For this second step, support from a multidisciplinary rig team was required, including at a minimum personnel from the following departments:
- Drilling
- Maintenance
- Marine
- Safety
As the work progressed, additional meetings with the rig personnel were required to validate information and resolve outstanding questions.
Once the assessment of Step 2 was completed, the total time required for each role was consolidated, and the full-time equivalent needed for each position was defined. Considering all roles, the minimum operational staffing was established. The client’s rules regarding shift duration, rest periods, and other applicable conditions were incorporated into the analysis.
- Determine the minimum operational staffing required
The minimum manning was determined based on the total measured task times and an analysis of the client’s operational constraints.
Project Results
Daily reports were provided to the client to present the progress of the time-tracking activities over a 14-day period. A consolidated summary of task times by role and full-time equivalents was then delivered to support the definition of minimum manning.
