Why Lifting Safety is Important
In mid-2020, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) formed a lifting initiative team made up of personnel with various backgrounds from its district, regional, and headquarters offices with the goal of reducing the number and severity of lifting incidents on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). After meeting with various stakeholders, including industry groups, individual operators, crane inspectors and safety instructors, our team decided that the best opportunity we had to improve safety performance of offshore lifting activities was to focus on improving worker awareness before, during, and after conducting the “next” lift. With this mission in mind, our “Lifting Our Awareness” initiative was launched. With information gathered from reviewing lifting incidents reported to BSEE and engaging industry, our Team concluded that approximately 90% of the lifting incidents reported to BSEE have occurred during what can be considered as a routine (I.e., frequently occurring) lift for that facility or work crew. Because special or unusual (e.g., “heavy lifts”) frequently require additional planning, oversight and safety reviews, these lifts usually are completed without incident. Our Team will be focusing on improving safety during the routine lifts as our best opportunity to drive lifting safety.
This website will support and broadcast the activities of the Lifting Our Awareness initiative, posting tools and observations developed by the BSEE team, and ideas and successes posted by our public stakeholders and partners with the goal of reducing offshore lifting incidents.
Tools for Lifting Our Awareness
Poster Series - These posters are available to the public to incorporate into their individual Safety Campaigns. These posters capture recurring themes reflected in the lifting incidents reported to BSEE.
Lifting Playbook - Using a sports analogy, BSEE’s Lifting Playbook is meant to be a template for industry to incorporate into the pre-lift planning procedures. Not intended to replace the Job Safety Analysis (JSA), a playbook talk immediately before conducting the next lift focusing on the critical few, lift specific safety challenges could result in the successful “touchdown”.
Lifting Pocket Guide - When planning and conducting a lift, even a routine lift, there are a lot of steps to focus on that help achieve a safe lift. This Pocket Guide helps remind everyone to focus on the critical few issues during any pre-lift planning or safety talk.
BSEE LIFT - As part of BSEE's commitment to collaborate with industry to drive lifting safety improvement, the BSEE Safe Lifting Team developed the BSEE Lifting Incident Findings Tool (BSEE LIFT) to address the offshore industry's growing need for timely and insightful information on lifting incidents. Updated monthly, you can access the latest BSEE LIFT below.
Lifting FAQ
§250.108 (e)(58) API RP 2D, Operation and Maintenance of Offshore Cranes, Sixth Edition, May 2007; incorporated by reference at §250.108;
§250.198 (e)(81) API Spec. 2C, Specification for Offshore Pedestal Mounted Cranes, Sixth Edition, March 2004, Effective Date: September 2004; incorporated by reference at § 250.108;
Certain material is incorporated by reference into this part with the approval of the Director of the Federal Register under 5 U.S.C. 552(a) and 1 CFR part 51. All incorporated material is available for inspection at the Houston BSEE office at 1919 Smith Street Suite 14042, Houston, Texas 77002 and is available from the sources indicated in this section. It is also available for inspection at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). To make an appointment to inspect incorporated material at the Houston BSEE office, call 1–844–259–4779. For information on the availability of this material at NARA, call 202–741–6030 or go to http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/cfr/ibr-locations.html.
BSEE has created a Potential Incident of Non-Compliance (PINC) list specifically for crane operations called the Crane Material Handling Equipment I-PINCs
You must report all incidents involving crane or personnel/material handling operations that occur on the area covered by your lease, right-of-use and easement (RUE), pipeline right-of-way (ROW), or other permit issued by BOEM or BSEE, and that are related to operations resulting from the exercise of your rights under your lease, RUE, pipeline ROW, or permit. See §250.186 - .190 Information and Reporting Requirements.
According to §250.188 (a) You must report the following incidents to the District Manager immediately via oral communication, and provide a written follow-up report (hard copy or electronically transmitted) within 15 calendar days after the incident: (8) All incidents involving crane or personnel/material handling operations. See Notice To Lessees and Operators (NTL) 2019-N05 for additional information about Incident and Spill Reports.
Did You Know:
- BSEE receives on average approximately five lifting incident reports every seven days?
- Inadequate work direction, failure to recognize the hazards, and deviation from established work procedures appear to be common contributors to many of these incidents?
BSEE Lifting Incident Findings Tool (BSEE LIFT)
- Last updated: 06/29/2026
| 2026 | # Crane | # Other Lifting Device | Total |
May | 40 | 4 | 44 |
Apr | 22 | 9 | 31 |
| Mar | 33 | 8 | 41 |
| Feb | 24 | 10 | 34 |
| Jan | 14 | 8 | 22 |
| 2025 | # Crane | # Other Lifting Device | Total |
| Dec | 14 | 6 | 20 |
| Nov | 18 | 9 | 27 |
| Oct | 30 | 3 | 33 |
| Sep | 24 | 5 | 29 |
| Aug | 25 | 4 | 29 |
| Jul | 24 | 8 | 32 |
| Jun | 30 | 6 | 36 |
| May | 32 | 12 | 44 |
| Apr | 30 | 4 | 34 |
| Mar | 26 | 12 | 38 |
| Feb | 25 | 11 | 36 |
| Jan | 19 | 6 | 25 |
May 2026 Monthly Snapshot – Lifting & Material Handling
- Forty-four crane, rigging, and material-handling events were reported across drilling, production, completion, workover, decommissioning, and other offshore operations. Nearly all resulted in no injuries or minor equipment damage. High-consequence potential events included: (1) a 28-lb lock ring DROPS event falling ~120 ft from a top drive with fatality potential; (2) a catastrophic lifting-point failure involving a 300-ton tank that fell back onto the dock; and (3) a personnel rope-swing transfer resulting in a man overboard. One first-aid strain injury was also reported.
- Load contact/snags accounted for the majority of incidents. Suspended loads, cranes, and rigging contacted vessel structures, handrails, piping, lighting, exhaust stacks, and adjacent cranes during transfers and backloading operations. Key contributors included inadequate lift-path planning and insufficient clearance assessment, compounded by vessel motion in 3–10 ft seas and winds up to 25 knots.
- Additional events included a life raft container falling into the water and deploying on impact, a 3-lb steel hose hang-off peg (~40 ft drop), a 2.5-lb Teflon spacer pad (~6 ft drop), scrap tubing overboard due to tagline entanglement, and minor components dislodged during load contact. Rigging failures included a 5/8-inch safety-link sling failure and a nylon lifting strap failure during tubular handling.
- A second BRC grip jaw slip occurred on May 9 involving a 22,000-lb bit stand slipping 12–18 inches and contacting the Lower Guide Assembly, mirroring prior events and indicating recurring VPH system concerns. Additional events included BX5 elevator unexpected opening during tripping, TFM trolley derailment from sling snag, and elevator slippage resulting in an ~8 ft drop of a bumper jar/spear assembly.
- Off-center lifts contributed to multiple swing/contact events and near misses. Line-of-fire exposure remained recurring, including a near miss involving potential pinning between a fuel tote and handrail. A subsea basket recovery event involved delayed response to a radio advisory regarding an off-center load, resulting in uncontrolled swing.
- Stop Work Authority was effectively used in multiple events preventing escalation (TFM trolley shift, cuttings box snag, duct lift, crane boom contact). Red zones were maintained in a DROPS lock ring event, preventing a potentially fatal struck-by exposure. Pre-job briefs, prompt cards, and Job by Design tools were consistently applied.
- – (1) VPH/BRC grip jaw load-limit compliance and OEM review due to repeated slip events; (2) improved lift-path planning and clearance control for congested decks and vessel-interface lifts in elevated sea states; (3) engineering verification of heavy lift points following 300-ton tank lifting-point failure; (4) strengthened line-of-fire controls and exclusion zone enforcement during all lifting and transfer operations.
How Can You Help?
The challenge to reduce OCS lifting incidents is bigger than just BSEE or Industry alone. We must work together toward this shared goal.
You can help prevent the next lifting incident across the entire OCS by sharing your success stories. If your organization or facility has implemented a new program, procedure, or training that is driving lifting performance safety improvements, we would like to hear about and share them. Please submit your new lifting safety initiatives and success stories for possible sharing to others through BSEE by emailing us.
Let us know if you have a great idea for making lifting operations safer, and we'll share it here!
How Are We Doing?
This section presents a summary of the lifting incidents reported to BSEE over the past year. This is not intended to be the primary site for accessing BSEE incident data but instead will highlight observed trends and incidents of interest. Recent BSEE Safety Alerts addressing lifting related issues are also listed in this section.
