Dolphin Drilling turns safety observations into operational insight with Fennex BBSS™
Product: BBSS™
Client: Dolphin Drilling
When: 2025-Present
Scope: Transform frontline safety observations into actionable operational insight, improving visibility, accountability, and follow-through.
Pictured: Gavin Haxton, Dolphin Drilling HSEEQ Advisor; Nassima Brown, Fennex Strategy Director, Graeme Christie, Dolphin Drilling VP HSEEQ
1,000+
hours saved annually through reduced administrative burden
40+
contractor organisations actively reporting
73%
unsafe conditions resolved within 7 days
"We already had a strong safety culture. What Fennex BBSS™ gave us was the visibility and follow-through to back it up. Our teams now know what to focus on because they can see it directly from the data, and that's made all the difference."
Graeme Christie, VP HSEEQ
Dolphin Drilling
We replaced manual, administration-intensive safety reporting with a digitised platform that gives HSE teams real-time visibility of emerging risks and ensures every unsafe condition is tracked through to closure.
Dolphin Drilling already had a strong safety culture and an established safety observation programme across its offshore drilling fleet.
The challenge was not workforce engagement. It was visibility, efficiency, and follow-through.
Safety observations were primarily paper-based, creating friction throughout the reporting process. Crew members completed observation cards manually, after which HSE personnel were required to transfer each card into a digital system. On busy days, this could mean processing 80 to 100 cards individually.
As well as creating a significant administrative burden, the process limited the organisation's ability to analyse trends, identify recurring risks, and ensure issues were consistently followed through to completion.
Reduced administrative burden
Improved safety visibility
Data-driven decision-making
The challenges faced
With a strong safety culture already established across its fleet, Dolphin Drilling recognised an opportunity to modernise its observation process and unlock greater value from frontline safety data. Key challenges included:
- Paper-based observations and manual data entry
- Limited trend analysis and risk visibility
- Poor visibility of action closure status
Mixed levels of digital safety maturity between two rigs
With existing processes creating time-consuming administration, Dolphin Drilling identified an opportunity to leverage digital technology to efficiently capture, track, and act on safety observations.
The Fennex solution
Fennex's Behaviour-Based Safety Solution (BBSS™) digitised the offshore safety observation process across Dolphin Drilling's fleet, allowing personnel to submit observations directly through mobile devices, tablets, or desktop computers, while continuing to operate effectively in offshore environments with limited connectivity.
The implementation focused on four key objectives:
- Simplifying safety observation reporting
- Reducing manual administration
- Improving visibility of emerging trends and risks
Ensuring observations resulted in accountable corrective actions
The solution was designed to be simple for both core crew and third-party contractors to use without disrupting existing workflows. Within four weeks, 440 users had been onboarded across both assets.
How Fennex BBSS™ enabled the transformation
Simple, mobile reporting
Easy-to-use mobile, voice-to-text, multilingual, and offline reporting.
Automated action management
Automatically generates corrective actions and assigns accountability until closure
Real-time trend visibility
Instant insight into emerging risks, behaviours, and safety performance.
Closed-loop communication
Automatic feedback keeps submitters informed when actions are completed.
Increased participation and higher quality reporting
Over 10,000 observations have been submitted through BBSS™ across Dolphin Drilling's two rigs, with participation from more than 40 contractor organisations. While reporting volumes remained strong, the greatest improvement was the quality and consistency of reporting. As Victor Stokes, HSE Advisor on the Paul B. Loyd Jr., noted, "It's not really the quantity that improved. But definitely the quality of the observations." The simplicity of digital reporting also reduced the likelihood of observations being forgotten or delayed. Graeme Christie, VP of HSEEQ, explained further, "People don't need to go and find a card anymore. They can just pick up their phone and submit it straight away."
From observation data to operational awareness
BBSS™ enables frontline observations to be analysed in real time, helping teams identify trends and focus on emerging risks before incidents occur. Following a client safety alert, Dolphin Drilling was able to instantly review related observations onboard and use the data to guide proactive intervention. According to Graeme, "We actually changed our HSE programme. The teams knew what they needed to focus on because they could see it directly from the data."
Corrective actions tracked through to closure
Unsafe conditions now automatically generate corrective actions that remain visible until completed. As a result, 98% of unsafe conditions have been closed out, with 73% completed within seven days. Automated feedback notifications keep submitters informed when actions are completed, helping maintain engagement and trust in the process. As Victor noted, "If it's just cards coming in, things can get forgotten about. Now it stays there until it gets closed out."
More time focused on safety
By eliminating manual data entry, BBSS™ saves HSE personnel an estimated 30–60 minutes per day, allowing more time for workforce engagement, coaching, and proactive risk management. As Victor put it, "Anything you can do to save time in this job is a bonus. It means you can focus on the things that actually make a difference."
Strengthening an already strong safety culture
- 10,000+ observations submitted
- 40+ sub-contractor organisations engaged
- 73% uncorrected unsafe conditions closed in less than a week
- 30-60 mins saved per day per asset
Fennex BBSS™ did not create Dolphin Drilling's safety culture. It strengthened it.
By removing friction from reporting, improving visibility of emerging risks, and ensuring observations are translated into action, the platform has helped operational teams move from reactive reporting to data-driven decision-making.
Today, safety observations are not simply recorded. They are actively used to identify trends, prioritise interventions, and support day-to-day operational decision-making across Dolphin Drilling's offshore assets.
Connect observations, incidents, risk and assurance in one platform.
BBSS™ can be deployed as a standalone solution or as part of the wider FennexSafe™ platform. Connect safety observations with incidents, corrective actions, risk management, assurance activities and operational reporting in one integrated system.
Discover BBSS™
A data-driven, AI-powered safety observation and reporting solution that captures, tracks and analyses workforce safety to prevent incidents before they occur
