Keeping the industry in safe hands

As the oil and gas sector undergoes dramatic economic growth, safety is undoubtedly a challenge. The region is particularly vulnerable to natural disaster such as earthquakes and landslides, whilst threats such as sabotage and terrorism loom large.

One of the vital roles of the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers is to work in collaboration with the industry to promote safe and responsible practices. The association helps its members achieve continuous improvements in health and safety by sharing best practice and developing guidance in a large number of technical areas. This is achieved through the formation of working groups that gather information and share experiences across the global membership.

According to Charles Bowen, Executive Director of the OGP, strong leadership is key for safety management to be successfully implemented. In his opinion, there needs to be a constant message that safety is the number one priority. He is, however, aware that sometimes filtering this down through an organisation can be difficult. “This message can very easily be misunderstood during its passage through the different levels of management, or diluted when strong messages on different subjects are perceived as more important,” he says. “The greatest issue, in my personal view, is competence. Although as an industry we have worked hard on this, it is a priority that needs to be permanently kept at the front of our minds. Competence is not training. For me, it is proof that staff understand what they are doing – including the risks that are entailed, and the safest way to go about the task.”

Safety first
Despite the dangers, the oil and gas industry’s safety record has been relatively good, although there have been a number of unfortunate incidents. But while events such as the Piper Alpha platform disaster in 1988 are undoubted low points, Bowen is at least pleased to see they have acted as catylysts for improvement. The inquiry following Piper Alpha exposed deficiencies in standards and led to a massive revision of safety standards globally to ensure a tragedy of such scale was never repeated. Many lessons have been learnt since and the industry is conscious of the continual need for high standards of management of health and safety. “We work in an industry that has high risks due to the fluids we handle, but we do it very safely,” explains Bowen. “Using worldwide accepted safety measures, the industry has shown very satisfactory improvement over the last 20 years. Our biggest causes of serious accidents are, in fact, road transport, and lifting and hoisting. The ongoing challenge for our industry is aging assets – some of which have exceeded their original design life – and the need for them to continue to operate safely for some time to come.”

Bowen recalls how the Piper Alpha disaster prompted the industry to tighten their practices and procedure and how new international standards were phased in as a result. “There was a fundamental change in the approach to safety following Piper Alpha,” recalls Bowen. “The introduction of Safety Management Systems across the industry has been core, and remains so. At the time, OGP produced the definitive guidance on the structure of such a system, and a great deal of legislation globally has underlined the need for such systems. In terms of standards, OGP works with ISO to produce or update between 15 and 20 standards per year. Many of these have a direct or secondary effect on safety.”

One area where new standards are likely to make a massive difference is the offshore sector. The long hours and irregular working hours make this sector particularly gruelling for workers, which is why effective training in safety is crucial. The Offshore Petroleum Industry Training Organisation (OPITO) have been pushing for the introduction of a new global safety training standard for offshore employees working with hazardous materials. Middle East oil firms have been given the task of piloting a scheme of training courses, based on the new standard, which if successful will see the standard formally introduced. The workgroup consisted of 16 oil and gas industry representatives from companies such as Saudi Aramco, ADMA-OPCO of Abu Dhabi, Qatar Petroleum and McDermott. Once introduced, the standard will ensure that offshore workers will receive the most comprehensive preparation and attain the highest levels of competence for working in the industry.

Challenges
Globally, aging assets are a particular concern when it comes to safety, and updating, improving and adding infrastructure has been particularly prominent in recent years. “With the increased demand for energy and higher prices, fields remain commercially viable for longer than initially scheduled,” says Bowen. “Equally, smaller fields become viable by using existing infrastructure. This means that installations will be used for longer than initially planned, and their capacity to operate needs to be monitored with care.”

Poor communications was a defining factor in the Piper Alpha disaster. On an oil platform, it is essential that the chain of command is clear and well coordinated and is communicated to the platform’s crew. Communications remain a problem in many regions to this day, and are a tricky challenge to overcome – particularly given that employees from all over the world work together on-site. “Where you have a number of nationalities working together (and I have known platforms with more than 20 nationalities on board), there are obviously problems of language,” highlights Bowen. “Communications are critical to safety, both because operational instructions need to be understood, but also in case of emergency.”

Technical innovations
Technological innovation is a crucial element in improving health and safety in the industry. Overall, Bowen is pleased with the effects advancements are having on working conditions. “Technology is permanently helping us to do things better,” he says. “Better design, better instrumentation, better materials, more sophisticated controls – all are working towards better safety. It’s rather like comparing a modern car to the cars of the 1950s. Their performance has improved, but so has their safety. Is it their brakes, their tyres, their steering, their body design, safety belts or airbags that have done the most? The answer, in truth, is probably a combination of all these different factors.”

Finally, having recently produced detailed guidance on the two subjects that have historically been the main cause for fatalities within the industry – road transport, and lifting and hoisting – the OGP hopes to see a reduction in this kind of incident industry-wide. “We are now in the phase of encouraging the implementation of this guidance across the industry, and I would hope that, as this progresses, we will see a downward trend in this kind of accident,” concludes Bowen. “We may not see such a change immediately, but we can hope to see a positive trend in the longer term.”

The human cost of oil
1964: The CP Baker Drilling Barge – built in 1962 following an uncommon catamaran design – burns and sinks after a shallow gas blowout
1979: The jack-up Bohai 2 capsizes off the cost of China killing 72
1980: Alexander Kielland platform capsizes during a storm after a leg support brace fails, with the loss of 123 live
1982: 84 people lose their lives after a ballast control malfunction causes the Ocean Ranger to capsize during a ferocious storm in the North Atlantic
1983: Glomar Java Sea drillship capsizes and sinks during Typhoon Lex in 1983 with the loss of 81 lives
1986: Chinook helicopter crashes into North Sea killing 45 workers and aircrew
1988: Whilst evacuating the Enchova Central after a blowout, 37 workers lose their lives when their lifeboat slips from the platform and falls to the sea
1988: Explosion and resulting fire on Piper Alpha platform claims 167 lives
2005: 22 people are killed when a support vessel collides with Mumbai High North, rupturing a riser and causing a major fire destroying the platform