FRAM Non-Linear Analysis of Safety and Environmental Preparedness During Normal Work Conditions in High-Risk FPSO Offloading Operations

Abstract

This paper examines how performance variability and non-technical skills enabled safe adaptation during a high-risk offloading operation between an FPSO and a shuttle tanker. The Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) was applied to compare Work-As-Imagined (WAI), based on procedures and standards, with Work-As-Done (WAD), based on the conditions experienced during the operation. While the WAI model contained twelve functions and represented a comparatively straightforward operational sequence, the WAD model expanded to thirty-eight interconnected functions, revealing the nonlinear character of real work. During execution, diesel pump leakage delayed hose flushing, while the operation progressively faced reduced weather and daylight windows, increasing wind and sea swell, production constraints, organizational pressure, and communication demand among multinational crews operating in non-native English. Safe performance emerged through adaptive control of these conditions. Maintenance restored degraded equipment; monitoring of mooring tension, transfer parameters, weather conditions, and connections was intensified; and flow from the FPSO to the shuttle tanker was reduced when necessary to preserve environmental protection. Non-technical skills, such as communication, teamwork, and decision-making, became functional resources and controls that supported these adaptations. The case demonstrates that resilience in FPSO offloading is not achieved by eliminating performance variability, but by managing it through the interaction of human competencies, technologies, and procedures. FRAM therefore provides a non-linear representation of how emerging conditions and adaptive performance jointly sustain safety and environmental preparedness during normal offshore operations.