Every offshore campaign is authorised on the strength of a set of barriers — a standby diver ready, a rigging plan that has been checked, a permit that means something. The barriers are verified once, at the readiness gate, and then the campaign runs for three months. This is a working method for the months in between: short field checklists, traced to the barriers they protect, completed by the representative on the vessel and evidenced as they go. The first set covers diving; marine operations, lifting, ROV, umbilicals and pipelay follow the same method.
The bowtie is the standard way of setting out a major accident hazard: threats on the left, the top event in the middle, consequences on the right, and barriers standing between them. It is an excellent planning tool and a poor operational one, because a diagram cannot tell you whether a barrier is still standing today.
Prevention barriers stop a threat becoming the top event. Recovery barriers limit what happens once it has. Self-verification is the contractor testing its own barriers; oversight is the client checking that the testing is real. Both are required, and neither substitutes for the other.
The readiness gate is thorough and the campaign is long. Equipment arrives mid-campaign, crews rotate, moorings change. Nothing re-tests the assumption.
A hundred-line matrix written for an auditor gets ticked down the page in four minutes. A ten-question walk round, written in the language of the job, gets done properly.
"Yes" is not a verification. What was seen, which document, whose record — captured at the moment of checking, not reconstructed a month later for a review.
The first set covers diving — thirteen checklists, 148 questions, split by mode so that nobody works through questions that do not apply to their spread. Sets for marine operations, lifting, ROV, umbilicals and pipelay are being built to the same pattern. Built on IMCA and IOGP guidance, and structured so that each question maps to the control it verifies. Project limits and local hazards are captured once on DIV-003 rather than written into every question, which is what lets the same set travel between campaigns.
| Ref | Applies to | Checklist | Items | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SSD-001 | Surface supplied | Pre-mobilisation and readiness gate | 16 | Once per campaign |
| SSD-002 | Surface supplied | Daily dive oversight | 10 | Each diving day |
| SSD-003 | Surface supplied | Weekly barrier health | 14 | Weekly |
| SSD-004 | Surface supplied | Equipment, maintenance and certification | 10 | Monthly |
| SSD-005 | Surface supplied | Emergency preparedness and medical | 10 | Monthly |
| SAT-001 | Saturation | Pre-mobilisation and readiness gate | 14 | Once per campaign |
| SAT-002 | Saturation | Daily and bell run oversight | 10 | Each diving day |
| SAT-003 | Saturation | Weekly barrier health | 12 | Weekly |
| SAT-004 | Saturation | Life support, equipment and certification | 12 | Monthly |
| SAT-005 | Saturation | Hyperbaric emergency and medical | 12 | Monthly |
| DIV-001 | Both modes | Crew change verification | 10 | Every crew change |
| DIV-002 | Both modes | 30-day barrier review | 10 | Every 30 days |
| DIV-003 | Both modes | Project-specific hazard supplement | 8 | Once per campaign |
Barrier Assurance is an easy to use online library of self-verification and oversight checklists for offshore subsea construction — diving first, then marine operations, lifting, ROV, umbilicals and pipelay. The intent is straightforward: to keep the barriers a campaign was authorised on robust — verified at initiation, and checked again throughout the life of the campaign rather than assumed to still be standing.
The checklists are short, written in the language of the job, and built on public industry guidance so they can be used on any project. Each question is traced to the control it verifies, and anything answered No or Partial becomes a corrective action rather than a tick in a box. Written for the person standing on the deck at six in the morning, not for the file.
Checks built against the governing risk assessment, with traceability from each question back to the control it protects — so the record survives an audit.
Readiness gates, contractor self-verification review, vessel and equipment assurance, and the evidence trail behind an authorisation to proceed.
A daily, weekly and monthly cadence that representatives will actually complete, with the corrective action loop closed rather than logged.
Whether you are running an offshore campaign and want a second pair of eyes on the barriers, or you have used the checklists and found something that does not work, it is worth hearing.
Useful things to mention:
Answer Yes, Partial, No or N/A, add a note and the evidence you saw, then sign. Anything answered Partial or No becomes a corrective action automatically. Open the set that matches the spread in use. Project limits and local hazards live on DIV-003, completed once per campaign.
| Checklist | Project / Vessel | Date | Answered | Actions | Status |
|---|
Verify against the governing documents for your own project. This framework does not replace the contractor's safety management system or the client's risk assessment.