Western Isles FPSO – Safety signage

In 2018, Blomsma Signs & Safety provided Dana Petroleum’s Western Isles FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading) with an escape route guidance system consisting of escape route signs, low location lighting, safety instructions in the cabins and escape plans. Also safety zone signs, fire fighting and rescue equipment & so called “IMO Fire control” signs were installed.

This FPSO was manufactured in Asia and had been provided with signs locally by various suppliers. This resulted in a colourful collection of signs that lacked a comprehensible system. Also, not all of the signs were suitable for offshore use or correctly applied the relevant rules and regulations. A consequence of this was, for example, incomplete escape route signalling; unmarked areas and spaces or routes that did not lead to a safe situation or evacuation point. Reason enough for Dana Petroleum to call in Blomsma Signs & Safety to reconstruct the signage into an understandable and compliant system.

Blomsma Signs & Safety, with a team of Blomsma 3M™ certified technicians, provided the entire FPSO with safety signage under considerable time pressure. The Western Isles was thus ‘compliant’ (met all applicable laws, regulations and standards) and equipped with a safety signage system. A big step forward from the previous, incoherent collection of signs and stickers.

The exterior signs are made from a 3M™ Scotchcal™ reflective vinyl on a variety of base materials to 3M™’s exacting specifications, while the interior uses our SafeSign retro-reflective signs and Class C low-location lighting.

About Dana Petroleum’s Western Isles FPSO

The Dana-operated Western Isles is producing from two oil fields, Harris and Barra, in the northern North Sea, 160km east of the Shetlands and 12km west of the Tern field.

It is a subsea development of production and water injection wells linked to a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, with the oil exported by shuttle tankers.

Read more about Dana Petroleum here: https://www.dana-petroleum.com/

Read more about the Western Isles FPSO here: https://www.dana-petroleum.com/what-we-do/united-kingdom/western-isles-fpso/

Standards, laws and regulations used in the project:

• SOLAS – Safety of Life at Sea
• IMO A.752(18) Guidelines for evaluation, testing and application of low location lighting
• IMO A.1116(30) Escape route signs and equipment location markings
• ISO 3864 (Part 1 to 4) – Safety symbols, shapes and colours
• ISO 7010 – Registered Safety Signs
• ISO 17398 – Quality and performance of signs
• ISO 23601 – Escape and evacuation plan signs
• ISO 24409 (Part 1 to 3) – Design, location and use of shipboard safety signs
• ISO 15370 – Low location lighting on passenger ships