AS IADC PREPARES to officially rollout two new high-profile programs aspart of its accreditation services, theassociation is looking forward to devel-opment of newprograms andto identifythose needed tomeet the chang-ing needs of theindustry.

The new pro-grams to beintroduced bythe end of theyear includeWellCAP Plus,an innovativeapproach to team learning and decisionmaking that will provide an alternativeto WellCAP’s traditional supervisorylevel instruction.

Also new will be a Ballast Control & Sta-bility accreditation and certificationprogram, which will extend IADC’s roleof accrediting training providers intoproviding individual certification forthose who complete the program.

Also on the horizon is a potentialaccreditation system for competencyassurance programs, and a comprehen-sive worldwide user study to help IADChighlight the future approach and direc-tion of its accreditation efforts.

W E L L C A P P L U S

The WellCAP Plus (WCP) programachieved a major milestone in July whenit underwent a full-length pilot course inLafayette with 12 participants from rigand field operations of IADC’s membercompanies. The Plus program is a high-er level of the WellCAP supervisorycourse and is to be taken every otheryear with the traditional WellCAPcourse in the other years.

The pilot course was facilitated by WCPdevelopment team members GaryNance, Randy Smith Training Solu-tions, Ron Fuqua, BP and JohnRogers Smith, LSU. Ten of the partici-pants were “donated’ by developmentteam companies. These included drillingengineers from BP, Newfield Explo-ration, ChevronTexaco, Unocal andAmerada Hess; an offshore installa-

tional manager (OIM) and operationsengineer from Transocean; a drillingsuperintendent from Diamond Off-shore; an OIM/toolpusher from Global-SantaFe; and a senior well control engi-neer from Wild Well Control.

There were originally two others thathad been offered by development teamcompanies, but they were unable tomake it to the pilot. Rather than go short(12 is considered the optimum size forteam organization), two volunteers werefound in a standard WellCAP coursebeing given to ENSCO Internationalemployees in the adjacent classroom.These included an OIM and a driller. Allpassed the required prequalificationtest, scoring at least 80% on a WellCAPsupervisory exam and a simulator test.

During the four-day pilot, participantswere divided into teams tasked withbuilding solutions to exercises based onreal-world well control scenarios.

After a first-day “mini-case” to intro-duce them to the team problem-solvingmodel around which WellCAP Plus isfocused, they spent the next three daysworking to solve increasingly challeng-ing exercises, from off-bottom kills tohigh-pressure high-temperature wells toa deepwater well control incident.

“All of the participant evaluations werevery positive,” said Steve Kropla,Director-Accreditation & CertificationPrograms for IADC.

“These are people that have been in theindustry for a long time and are sea-soned individuals that attended a wellcontrol course very two years that hadbecome repetitive to them,” Mr Kroplacontinued. “WellCAP Plus gave them anew learning environment and the abili-ty to work as a team with other peoplewho have high skill levels.”

The facilitator qualification process isbeing developed for IADC by two con-sultants from the Texas EngineeringExtension Service (TEEX) of TexasA&M University, who were presentthrough the course.

“One of the things they consistentlyremarked,” Mr Kropla added, “was thatthey had never seen a group that as awhole remained so focused and enthusi-

astic about a course throughout itsduration.”

The observations from the pilot coursewill be used to shape the program’s finalpackage before WellCAP Plus is present-ed to the industry for comments in earlySeptember with comments due by theend of October. This will put the com-ment period during the time of the WellControl Conference of the Americas.

“A presentation about the program willbe made at the conference and we hopeto solicit comments from anyone whomay not have contributed comments atthat time,” Mr Kropla said.

The official rollout of the program isexpected by year end 2004.

The task force working on the projectincludes Transocean, Diamond Off-shore, GlobalSantaFe, Noble Corpora-tion, ChevronTexaco, BP, NewfieldExploration, Shell, Randy Smith Train-ing Solutions, Aberdeen DrillingSchools, University of Louisiana, Tech-Tran International, Well ControlSchool and Wild Well Control.

S U R F A C E B O P G U I D E L I N E S

Though not directly related to trainingor accreditation, a recent well control-related initiative spearheaded by IADC,development of the Surface BOP Guide-lines for Floating MODUs, has alsorecently been completed. It is expectedthat the guidelines will be available bythe IADC Annual Meeting in September.They will be available in hard copy andCD versions. For more information, seethe July/August 2004 Drilling Contrac-tor, p 24.

B A L L A S T C O N T R O L & S T A B I L I T Y

IADC has been developing the combinedaccreditation and certification programfor ballast control and stability in con-junction with the Nautical Institute ofLondon. The program is designed to ful-fill IMO and flag state requirements forOffshore Installation Manger (OIM),Barge Supervisor (BS) and Ballast Con-trol Operator (BCO) licenses for ballastcontrol and stability courses. Upon com-pleting the course, students will receivea logbook which could be used to docu-ment six months of sea service complet-

16 D R I L L I N G C O N T R A C T O R September/October 2004

IADC’s training, accreditation program expanding

Steve Kropla

ing specific ballast control tasks to qual-ify for an IADC BCO Certificate.

IADC met with the UK Health & SafetyExecutive regarding its comments onthe working draft of the program, whichhad been opened for public review earli-er this year. Many of the HSE’s com-ments centered around training withfull-motion simulators and refreshercourses. Following discussions withHSE, IADC amended the program toinclude dual classes of certificates. Oneclass would be for a course teachingbasic ballast control and stabilityinstruction without use of full-motionsimulators. This course and certificatewould be in compliance with require-ments by most flag states, the US CoastGuard and the IMO.

The second class of certificate would bethose completing a course that does uti-lize full-motion simulators to replicateextreme wind and sea conditions andemergency situations. This certificatewould comply with regulations in the UKand Canada.

A second issue was refresher training.IADC and HSE agreed upon a five-yearinterval with several options for requal-ification, including repeating the fullcourse, taking an approved refreshercourse or recompleting the ballast con-trol familiarization logbook required forinitial BCO certification.

Other options, perhaps involving contin-uing education, could be introducedonce the program is under way.

A provision was added to the program toinclude the requirement for recomple-tion of the course following a two-yearlapse or more in service before an indi-vidual can be re-employed as a ballastcontrol operator. Additionally, the proj-ect development team added specific on-board simulations of emergency situa-tions as part of the logbook.

Companies participating on the develop-ment team include Transocean, Dia-mond Offshore, Atwood Oceanics,Alliance Maritime Training andAberdeen Skills Enterprise Training.

C O M P E T E N C Y A S S U R A N C E

Most contractors already have somekind of competency program in place. Inthe UK there are certain standards forassessing an individual’s competence,

particularly for safety-critical positions.An IADC program would establish a cer-tain set of standards that companiescould be measured against to show thattheir competency programs have all ofthe elements a valid program shouldinclude.

The Competency Subcommittee of theTraining Committee has a new chair-man, George Edwards with Global-SantaFe, who has reactivated the sub-committee after a period during whichits activities slowed considerably. Thesubcommittee is currently planning todevelop a competency assurance pro-gram accreditation system. Under thisprogram, an organization may apply forIADC review and recognition of its inter-nal competence assurance system. Thiswill invite an in-depth audit of the com-petency program’s development, imple-mentation, assessment and qualityassurance. These criteria will be used toassure that competency assurance pro-grams meet accepted practices to devel-op and assure the skills of personsemployed in safety-critical positions.

S U R V E Y

During the fourth quarter of 2004, IADCwill be conducting a worldwide survey ofcurrent and potential users of IADCaccreditation systems. The survey willfocus on existing systems such as Well-CAP and RIG PASS as well as recentlyintroduced programs that might bedeveloped in the future.

The primary objective will be to identifywhere users feel IADC can and shouldimprove its existing approach to accred-itation of training providers, be it interms of user friendliness, practicalityof paperwork and administration, and,in particular, to identify measures need-ed to develop and maintain continuedacceptance of its programs as “fit forpurpose” in the rapidly-changing pres-ent day drilling environment.

The survey is planned to be complete bythe end of the year. Results will bereviewed to determine future directionsand developments for IADC accredita-tion programs in coming years. n

September/October 2004 D R I L L I N G C O N T R A C T O R 17