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.
35 checklists across six disciplines — Diving, Marine, ROV, Subsea, Lifting, HSSE — 355 questions in all, each split so that nobody works through questions that do not apply to their spread. Every question is traced to the public standard the control comes from. Complete them online, or download the PDF to fill in by hand. 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diving · IMCA D series and IOGP 411 | |||||
| SSD-001 | Surface Supplied | Surface Supplied Diving - Pre-Mobilisation and readiness gate | 16 | Once per campaign, before diving starts | |
| SSD-002 | Surface Supplied | Surface Supplied Diving - Daily Dive Oversight | 10 | Each diving day | |
| SSD-003 | Surface Supplied | Surface Supplied Diving - Weekly Barrier Health | 14 | Weekly | |
| SSD-004 | Surface Supplied | Surface Supplied Diving - Equipment, Maintenance and Certification | 10 | Monthly | |
| SSD-005 | Surface Supplied | Surface Supplied Diving - Emergency Preparedness and Medical | 10 | Monthly and after any change | |
| SAT-001 | Saturation | Saturation Diving - Pre-Mobilisation and readiness gate | 14 | Once per campaign, before diving starts | |
| SAT-002 | Saturation | Saturation Diving - Daily and Bell Run Oversight | 10 | Each diving day | |
| SAT-003 | Saturation | Saturation Diving - Weekly Barrier Health | 12 | Weekly | |
| SAT-004 | Saturation | Saturation Diving - Life Support, Equipment and Certification | 12 | Monthly | |
| SAT-005 | Saturation | Saturation Diving - Hyperbaric Emergency and Medical | 12 | Monthly and after any change | |
| DIV-001 | All diving | Diving - Crew Change Verification | 10 | Every crew change | |
| DIV-002 | All diving | Diving - 30-Day Barrier Review | 10 | Every 30 days | |
| DIV-003 | All diving | Diving - Project-Specific Hazard Supplement | 8 | Once per campaign, and on any change of worksite | |
| Marine · IMCA M series, IMO instruments and IOGP | |||||
| MAR-001 | Marine | Marine Operations - Mobilisation and readiness gate | 12 | Once per campaign, before marine operations start | |
| MAR-002 | Marine | Marine Operations - Daily oversight | 10 | Each operational day | |
| MAR-003 | Marine | Marine Operations - Weekly barrier health | 10 | Weekly | |
| MAR-004 | Marine | Dynamic Positioning - Assurance and station keeping | 11 | Once per campaign and after any DP incident | |
| MAR-005 | Marine | Anchor Handling and Mooring - Barrier verification | 10 | Before anchor handling or mooring operations, and weekly during them | |
| MAR-006 | Marine | Lifting and Deck Operations - Barrier verification | 10 | Weekly during lifting operations | |
| MAR-007 | Marine | Personnel Transfer - Barrier verification | 9 | Before personnel transfer operations, and weekly during them | |
| MAR-008 | Marine | Marine Emergency Preparedness and Security | 9 | Monthly | |
| ROV · IMCA R series and IMCA C001 | |||||
| ROV-001 | ROV | ROV Operations - Mobilisation and readiness gate | 11 | Once per campaign, before ROV operations start | |
| ROV-002 | ROV | ROV Operations - Daily oversight | 9 | Each operational day | |
| ROV-003 | ROV | ROV Operations - Weekly barrier health | 9 | Weekly | |
| ROV-004 | ROV | ROV Intervention and Tooling - Barrier verification | 8 | Before intervention tasks, and weekly during them | |
| Subsea · IMCA M253, IMCA S019 and DNV | |||||
| SUB-001 | Subsea | Subsea Installation - Readiness gate | 10 | Once per campaign, before subsea installation starts | |
| SUB-002 | Subsea | Subsea Installation - Daily oversight | 8 | Each operational day | |
| SUB-003 | Subsea | Subsea Installation - Weekly barrier health | 8 | Weekly | |
| SUB-004 | Subsea | Subsea Testing and Pre-Commissioning - Barrier verification | 8 | Before test and pre-commissioning, and at each phase | |
| Lifting · IMCA M187, IMCA M194 and IOGP 459 | |||||
| LFT-001 | Lifting | Lifting Operations - Readiness gate | 10 | Once per campaign, before lifting operations start | |
| LFT-002 | Lifting | Lifting Operations - Daily oversight | 9 | Each day lifting takes place | |
| LFT-003 | Lifting | Lifting Operations - Weekly barrier health | 8 | Weekly | |
| HSSE · IOGP 459 Life-Saving Rules, ISO 45001 and ISO 14001 | |||||
| HSE-001 | HSSE | Control of Work - Readiness gate | 9 | Once per campaign, before work starts | |
| HSE-002 | HSSE | Control of Work - Daily oversight | 9 | Each operational day | |
| HSE-003 | HSSE | HSSE - Weekly barrier health | 10 | Weekly | |
Each checklist can be completed online, or downloaded as a PDF to be printed and filled in by hand where a screen is not practical. The PDF carries the same questions, guidance and references as the online version.
Barrier Assurance is an easy to use online library of self-verification and oversight checklists for offshore subsea construction — covering diving, marine, ROV, subsea, lifting and HSSE. 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:
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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. Choose a discipline, or search across all of them.
| 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.
Everyone signed in under your organisation, and what they have completed so far.
| Name | Organisation | Role | Completed | In progress | Last activity |
|---|