Introduction
Advancing in the global economy implies adjusting to increased competition, which requires higher productivity. Yet, increased productivity occurs when the occupational environment offers safe and pleasant working conditions. Contrarily, working environment highly exposed to occupational risks and hazard that may cause accidents, illness and even death lose their competitiveness at the cause of absenteeism, employees’ insurance expenditures orpotential trials (Stranks, 2005).
Statistics conducted by International Labour Organization (ILO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations (UN) agree in their estimations that there are 279 million occupational accidents and 160 million diseases associated with the working environment, plus around 2 million individuals lose their lives in occupational accidents yearly (Hughes and Ferret, 2012).
Besides the occupational health and safety, there is the environmental factor that needs to be addressed by safety processes in oil and gas industry. Various accidents, caused by either technical, human, or regulatory factors generate pollution and even catastrophes, such as the one produced by British Petroleum in Gulf of Mexico.
Article Aim
The entrance in the new millennium imposes increased challenges for health, safety and environment (HSE) protection in gas and oil industry. The aim of this research paper is to discussrelevant HSE management systems process design for addressing the challenges of the new millennium for the oil and gas industry.
Article Objectives
While aiming to discuss relevant HSE management systems process, the article proposes to articulate HSE principles, to present relevant HSE standards, guidance and legislative framework, to present the main causes for which accidentsoccur in oil and gas industry, to analyze risk management tools and investigate human factor in accident causation and to investigate and make recommendations for minimizing the risks.
Conclusion
For developing HSE management systems it is required a detailed knowledge of the legal framework that regulates the HSE regarding the operations and activities in oil and gas industry, the expertize of HSE professionals, plus a thorough knowledge of work processes implemented within oil and gas organizations. The current legislation is still fragmented and for reaching a safety process design there must be applied a global integration of legal framework, of management procedures and of technical requirements. The existent risk management programs require compliance with the regulatory framework and best practices models from the industry, in order to prevent accidents or hazards. However, they also require human involvement, for adjusting the risk management processes to the evolving world’s needs.
According to these findings, further recommendation suggests an investigation regarding how could there be applied a global safety process. How would this affect the global competition and what measures would be required for applying a global safety process?
Literature Review
Companies activating in oil and gas industry need to permanently adapt their HSE standards to the international HSE standards, for being relevant and for avoiding accidents’occurrence. In this sense, there should be applied continuous risk assessment procedures for determining the significant risks as well as the near misses, for measuring the performances, while striving for improvement and for assuring the compliance with the international legislations regarding the health, safety and environmental protection standards (IPIECA/OGM, 2002).
Experts consider that for avoiding accidents and catastrophes to occur, the legislative provisions should be founded on three elements: (1) a powerful, well-resourced and competent regulator; (2) firm regulations that determine the right accountabilities and behaviors; (3) industry support, buy-in (Coleman, 2013).
European Union tackles the challenges of the new millennium, imposed by internalization and globalization that requires the same HSE processes and procedures in countries wherein global players operate, by introducing a unified offshore oil and gas drilling safety regime (Isanti, 2013). Health, safety and environmental standards already applied by major producers such as United Kingdom, are introduced in all the 27 member states, which, based on the new regulations, will be awarded for safe operations and penalized or withdrawn their license for not following the safety standards (Isanti, 2013).
Guidelines referring to HSE standards address various oil and gas specific activities, but they are not yet globally integrated. For the offshore installation, the UK legislation provides that the organizations working in oil and gas industry should be have predictable and low risks, should correct the evaluation of subterranean conditions, should properly address the suspension and abandonment issues, should apply appropriate examination, complying with the Health and Safety Executive provisions and reports (HSE Books, 2008).
Existent guidelines also address the offshore health and safety law, according to which operators must demonstrate preparedness to control major accidents, make sure the installation, wells and pipelines function according to the HSE standards, effectively measure and prevent accidents caused by potentially flammable or explosive substances. Similarly, the employers should cooperate with the owner for ensuring the health and safety of the employees, assess the work related risks and implement control measures, provide a health safety training and assure employees’ insurance (“Offshore Health and Safety Law”, n.d.).
Other guidelines, applied in New Zeeland, Australia and United Kingdom include: creating an overview of health and safety measures for onshore production installation; report near misses incidents; assign competent persons to assure good maintenance for wellsduring inventory; evaluate the well’s lifecycle sustainability, addressing its design, modifications, constriction, equipment, operation, maintenance, suspending and abandon for reducing risks (McVeagh, Clarke, Shrive and Bailey, 2012).
In United States, the oil and gas activities are regulated by different authorities, such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), US Department of Labour, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Environmental Protection Agency or Chemical Safety Board, in regards to health, safety and environmental protection during oil and gas operations (“Oil and Gas Regulations”, 2013).Oil and gas companies are requiredto pass EPA rules by reducing air emissions resulted from drilling or hydraulic fractions, they need land use development, drilling and operating permits, in compliance with NEPA’s guidelines and have to develop a waste management strategy that respects various environmental and ecosystem protection acts (“Oil and Gas Regulations”, 2013).
While there are similar standards for HSE in oil and gas industry, their guidelines and applicability differ greatly from country to country, making oil and gas operations being exposed to the risk of not being compliant with legal frameworks or HSE operations across countries. In other words, what has been proven effectively in terms of HSE standards in one country, might not be applied in other country wherein, impacting the operators’ business, plus the health, safety and environment.
Risk management tools are required for further developing HSE management systems. Effective risk assessment in oil and gas industry implies developing the Hazard Identification (HAZID) for identifying the potential hazards, in order to be able to properly manage them and to reduce risks as much as possible (Hazmah, 2012).
Another risk management tool widely implemented in oil and gas industry is the Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) tool, which identifies the operators’ weaknesses and potential hazards that might occur in a processing facility (Aven, 2008). Applying HAZOP in developing a HSE management system implies integrating this management tool in the operations, activities but also in software programs that guide work processes in oil and gas industry, for analyzing the potential hazardous activities or facility specific weaknesses that can produce hazards (Lopez, SetolaandWolthusen, 2012). Consequently, according to HAZOP analysis, there must be developed effective measures to prevent hazards from occurring.
Besides specific tools, human factor is highly significant in the prevention of hazards, as well as it constitutes a major cause for hazards’ occurrence, as a result of human error, or improper applicability of the risk analysis, safety tools or lack of compliance with legal framework. In designing the risk management process, there must be involved technical experts as well as health, safety and environmental protection specialists. Moreover, for effectively developing the risk management plan and implementing the relevant risk evaluation tools, the operator and the employer must also be involved in establishing the HSE working guidelines, maintaining them updated with various changes that could interfere in the industry, caused by regulations, politics or technology.
There are multiple causes of accidents in oil and gas industry activities, which occur because of lack of conformity with legal and technical working standards. Lack of “Permit to Work”, lack of corresponding auditing, lack of “HAZID” are several technical causes of accidents (Atherton and Gil, 2008). Yet, the causes of accidents depend on the nature of accidents. In the case of the occupational accidents, the main probable causes are the working processes and the workplace environment, which may cause illness, incidents, injury and even death (KenettandRaanan, 2011).
Working with hazardous substance is identified as a major cause of the accidents in oil and gas industry activities (Hughes and Ferret, 2012). Similarly, the lack of proper equipment, required for handling activities, the inappropriate job training and poor supervision, limited machinery specifications in oil and gas industry can impact employees’ safety, causing accidents. Natural impact also constitutes a cause of accidents, generated by seismic activities, hurricanes, inundations, natural conflagrations, etc. (Patin, 1999) The accidents involved in transportation and storage activities (oil spills) are caused by collisions, fires, explosions or by the evaporation of the liquefied gas on the surface of the sea, while forming parts of ice and gas clouds, which produces flameless explosions, highly dangerous, destroying everything on an area of up to 400km2 (Patin, 1992).
The HSE management system should contain an accident investigation plan, for properly identifying the causes of accidents (if accidents occurred), as well as the consequences of accidents, referring to losses, health, safety and environmental impact, financial considerations (Stranks, 2006). The accident investigation should be conducted as soon as possible after the incident took place (Hughes and Ferret, 2009). A good work practice in this sense is to include an incident/accident reporting system in the carried out activities, which to identify the risk factors that various operations and activities face, allowing also for an effective accident investigation, facilitating also a learning process for avoiding similar accidents to occur again (KenettandRaanan, 2011). The accident investigation should evaluate the technical, human, or organizational factors that could have been responsible for causing the accident (Lindoe, BaramandRenn, 2014). According to the findings of the investigation, it is recommended to be applied documented improvements, in compliance with the best practices in terms of technical, human expertize or organizational norms. This implies a restructuring program and an organizational change for a smooth integration of the improved guidelines and processes in the activities and operations of oil and gas organizations.
In addition to the internal accident investigation processes, external inspections are being carried out by regulatory authorities that develop audits for evaluating the compliance with the existent functional requirements, establishing if the safety level is achieved, without investigating how it is achieved (Kenett and Raanan, 2011).
Analysis & Discussions
Focusing on organizational safety and developing Health, Safety & Environmental Management practices is no longer a choice that organizations take for confirming their social responsibility values, but it is a requirement for staying competitive, while complying with the international HSE requirements. As the world changes, occupational environment also evolves and specific occupational domains need to adjust their HSE management systems, for keeping the pace with the occurred changes. Oil and gas industry is in permanent change and evolution and this requires constant concern from HSE specialists from this industry, in order to maintain the health and safety of employees, environment and society overall.
The international legislation for health, safety and environmental protection tend to address health and safety separately of environmental aspects. This aspect needs to be changed, because environmental aspect is a concern of the new millennium and it should be integrated across all activity domains in oil and gas industry. Moreover, the legal framework discussing HSE regulations needs to be updated to the permanent social, political, economic, technological changes for remaining relevant and for properly reducing accidents and hazards. In addition, this research has identified the need for harmonizing the global legal framework referring to HSE in oil and gas, for increased efficiency for attaining a safety process design. Such actions were already taken, as organizations throughout the world are applying risk management procedures such as HAZID or HAZOP, or are responding to standard audit and regulations regarding accident inspections. However, more effort is required for developing an integrated safety design process for answering the challenges of the new millennium.
References
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