Barrier management in the offshore oil and gas industry

Accident investigations indicate that inadequate barrier management has been a main cause of many accidents in the process industry. In 2013, the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority issued a barrier management framework for the offshore oil and gas industry. The framework describes principles related to barrier management and may be a valuable guide for the entire process industry. However, the offshore industry faces several challenges when implementing the framework. This paper discusses these challenges and clarifies the central concepts and steps of barrier management. A key message is the need for clarity and integration in a systematic approach to risk and barrier management.     

Safety climate and mindful safety practices in the oil and gas industry

IntroductionThe existence of a positive association between safety climate and the safety behavior of sharp-end workers in high-risk organizations is supported by a considerable body of research. Previous research has primarily analyzed two components of safety behavior, namely safety compliance and safety participation. The present study extends previous research by looking into the relationship between safety climate and another component of safety behavior, namely mindful safety practices. Mindful safety practices are defined as the ability to be aware of critical factors in the environment and to act appropriately when dangers arise.MethodRegression analysis was used to examine whether mindful safety practices are, like compliance and participation, promoted by a positive safety climate, in a questionnaire-based study of 5712 sharp-end workers in the oil and gas industry.ResultsThe analysis revealed that a positive safety climate promotes mindful safety practices.ConclusionsThe regression model accounted for roughly 31% of the variance in mindful safety practices. The most important safety climate factor was safety leadership.Practical applicationsThe findings clearly demonstrate that mindful safety practices are highly context-dependent, hence, manageable and susceptible to change. In order to improve safety climate in a direction which is favorable for mindful safety practices, the results demonstrate that it is important to give the fundamental features of safety climate high priority and in particular that of safety leadership.     

Developing safety indicators for preventing offshore oil and gas deepwater drilling blowouts

An important question with respect to the Macondo blowout is whether the accident is a symptom of systemic safety problems in the deepwater drilling industry. An answer to such a question is hard to obtain unless the risk level of the oil and gas (O&G) industry is monitored and evaluated over time. This article presents information and indicators from the Risk Level Project (RNNP) in the Norwegian O&G industry related to safety climate, barriers and undesired incidents, and discusses the relevance for deepwater drilling. The main focus of the major hazard indicators in RNNP is on production installations, whereas only a limited number of incident indicators and barrier indicators are related to mobile drilling units. The number of kicks is an important indicator for the whole drilling industry, because it is an incident with the potential to cause a blowout. Currently, the development and monitoring of safety indicators in the O&G industry seems to be limited to a short list of “accepted” indicators, but there is a need for more extensive monitoring and understanding. This article suggests areas of extensions of the indicators in RNNP for drilling based on experience from the Macondo blowout. The areas are related to schedule and cost, well planning, operational aspects, well incidents, operators’ well response, operational aspects and status of safety critical equipment. Indicators are suggested for some of the areas. For other areas, more research is needed to identify the indicators and their relevance and validity.     

Inherent safety in offshore oil and gas activities: a review of the present status and future directions

Inherent safety is a proactive approach for hazard/risk management during process plant design and operation. It has been proven that, considering the lifetime costs of a process and its operation, an inherently safer approach is a cost-optimal option. Inherent safety can be incorporated at any stage of design and operation; however, its application at the earliest possible stages of process design (such as process selection and conceptual design) yields the best results.Although it is an attractive and cost-effective approach to hazard/risk management, inherent safety has not been used as widely as other techniques such as HAZOP and quantitative risk assessment. There are many reasons responsible for this; key among them are a lack of awareness and the non-availability of a systematic methodology and tools.The inherent safety approach is the best option for hazard/risk management in offshore oil and gas activities. In the past, it has been applied to several aspects of offshore process design and operation. However, its use is still limited. This article attempts to present a complete picture of inherent safety application in offshore oil and gas activities. It discuses the use of available technology for implementation of inherent safety principles in various offshore activities, both current and planned for the future.     

Inherently safer design in offshore oil and gas projects

Like all hazardous installations, inherently safer design (ISD) is one of the key tools in offshore oil and gas projects to minimize risks in offshore facilities. As the life cycle of offshore facilities is relatively short compared with onshore counterparts and there are many projects running every year, the potential is high for raising inherent safety standards and lowering safety risks throughout the offshore industry as old facilities are phased out. This paper gives an overview of offshore facilities and examples of implementation of ISD. Good examples of ISD are numerous. Industry guidance on ISD implementation abound. Yet, the systematic implementation of it in the industry is patchy. There are many reasons for factors which impede the effective, efficient and consistent implementation of ISD in projects. This paper describes some of them and proposes solution to address them. They include (a) the effective integration of ISD into hazard management systems with appropriate language to engage all disciplines in projects, (b) the phasing of resources to enable the project to capture ISD measures which are only available during early phases, (c) application of appropriate ISD goals and ISD performance metrics at various stages and (d) the appropriate use of quantified risk assessment to support ISD.     

Safety compliance and safety climate: A repeated cross-sectional study in the oil and gas industry

IntroductionViolations of safety rules and procedures are commonly identified as a causal factor in accidents in the oil and gas industry. Extensive knowledge on effective management practices related to improved compliance with safety procedures is therefore needed. Previous studies of the causal relationship between safety climate and safety compliance demonstrate that the propensity to act in accordance with prevailing rules and procedures is influenced to a large degree by workers' safety climate. Commonly, the climate measures employed differ from one study to another and identical measures of safety climate are seldom tested repeatedly over extended periods of time. This research gap is addressed in the present study.MethodThe study is based on a survey conducted four times among sharp-end workers of the Norwegian oil and gas industry (N = 31,350). This is done by performing multiple tests (regression analysis) over a period of 7 years of the causal relationship between safety climate and safety compliance. The safety climate measure employed is identical across the 7-year period.ConclusionsTaking all periods together, the employed safety climate model explained roughly 27% of the variance in safety compliance. The causal relationship was found to be stable across the period, thereby increasing the reliability and the predictive validity of the factor structure. The safety climate factor that had the most powerful effect on safety compliance was work pressure.Practical applicationsThe factor structure employed shows high predictive validity and should therefore be relevant to organizations seeking to improve safety in the petroleum sector. The findings should also be relevant to other high-hazard industries where safety rules and procedures constitute a central part of the approach to managing safety.     

Fuzzy risk assessment of oil and gas offshore wells

Risk evaluation of offshore wells is a challenging task, given that much of the available data is highly uncertain and vague, and many of the mechanisms are complex and difficult to understand. Consequently, a systematic approach is required to handle both quantitative and qualitative data as well as means to update existing information when new knowledge and data become available. Each Basic Risk Item (BRI) in a hierarchical framework is expressed as a fuzzy number, which is a combination of the likelihood of a failure event and the associated failure consequence. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used to estimate weights required for grouping non-commensurate risk sources. Evidential Reasoning (ER) is employed to incorporate new data for updating existing risk estimates. It is envisaged that the proposed approach could serve as a basis for benchmarking acceptable risks in offshore wells.     

A conceptual offshore oil and gas process accident model

The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss an accident prevention model for offshore oil and gas processing environments. The accidents that are considered in this work relate specifically to hydrocarbon release scenarios and any escalating events that follow. Using reported industry data, the elements to prevent an accident scenario are identified and placed within a conceptual model to depict the accident progression. The proposed accident model elements are represented as safety barriers designed to prevent the accident scenario from developing. The accident model is intended to be a tool for highlighting vulnerabilities of oil and gas processing operations and to provide guidance on how to minimize their hazards. These vulnerabilities are discussed by applying the 1988 Piper Alpha and the 2005 BP Texas City disaster scenarios to the model.     

RAM分析技术在海上油气田建设项目中的应用研究

水下生产系统最近几年被广泛用于海洋深水油气田的开发.与传统陆上油气田相比,水下生产系统维护困难,系统故障可能导致更严重后果,能源公司越来越重视水下生产系统的可靠性.总结了可靠性、可用性和可维护性分析技术的基本原理和工作流程,以目前正在建设中的深水油气田开发项目为例,给出了可靠性、可用性和可维护性技术的应用过程,并根据结果优化了基本设计方案,确保了导管架平台与水下生产系统的总体可靠性和可用性,同时从可靠性观点出发,针对设计中的薄弱环节,提出了相应的改进措施,对今后海上油气开发项目的设计的选择和运行维护方案的制定具有一定的指导与借鉴意义.     

The role of national culture in determining safety performance: Challenges for the global oil and gas industry

This paper addresses the issue of occupational safety and how the process of globalisation can potentially influence the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour of disparate ‘national’ workforces working across the globe for the same multi-national company. The paper reviews published literature on cross-cultural differences in attitudes, perceptions and beliefs regarding safety and presents details of a study examining the relationship between Hofstede’s [Hofstede, G., 1984. Culture’s Consequences; International Differences in Work-Related Values, Abridged edition. Sage Publications, London, Hofstede, G., 1991. Culture and Organisations; Software of the Mind. McGraw Hill, Maidenhead] cultural values dimensions (i.e., Power Distance, Individualism/Collectivism, Masculinity/Femininity); safety climate (perceived management commitment to safety) and risk-taking behaviour in workforce members of a multi-national engineering organisation operating in six countries. The results suggest that more proximal influences such as perceived management commitment to safety and the efficacy of safety measures exert more impact on workforce behaviour and subsequent accident rates than fundamental national values.     

Risk perception by offshore workers on UK oil and gas platforms

This paper reports the first investigation of risk perception by workers on offshore oil and gas installations on the UK Continental Shelf, following changes in offshore safety legislation in the wake of the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988. The Offshore Safety Case regulations (Health and Safety Executive, 1992, A Guide to the Offshore Installations (Safety Case) Regulations) put the onus on the operator to identify the major hazards and to reduce the risks to As Low As is Reasonably Practicable (ALARP). The regulations specifically state that Quantitative Risk Assessments (QRA) must be used when preparing the Safety Case. However, people do not use QRA when making everyday judgements about risk; they make subjective judgements known as risk perceptions, which are influenced by a number of different factors. This study was designed to complement the extensive QRA calculations that have already been carried out in the development of Safety Cases. The aim was to measure subjective risk perception in offshore personnel and examine how this relates to the more objective risk data available, namely accident records and QRA calculations. This paper describes the Offshore Risk Perception Questionnaire developed to collect the data and reports on UK offshore workers' perceptions of the risks associated with major and minor hazards, work tasks and other activities aboard production platforms.     

Investigating new risk reduction and mitigation in the oil and gas industry

The complexity of the processes and the nature of volatile petroleum products urged the oil and gas industry to utilize various risk assessment techniques to identify potential failure modes that can interrupt operation processes. Consequently, government agencies and nonprofit professional societies guide the industry with regulatory guidelines, standards, and best recommended practices to oversee the operations management, assure safe working environment, and contain failures within tolerable limits. Yet, accidents due to electro-mechanical failures still occur and result in various consequences. Accordingly, critics have raised concerns about the petroleum industry's safety and risk mitigation credentials and question its ability to prevent future major accidents. Therefore, new risk assessment tools need to be introduced to provide decision makers and novice engineers with a diverse perception of potential risks. The aim of this paper is verify the application of Risk in Early Design (RED), a product risk assessment tool, in identifying potential failures in the oil and gas industry. Approximately thirty major accident underwent the RED analysis to verify the software's application to identify and rank potential failure modes.     

Risk assessment in the offshore industry

This paper describes the implementation and use of risk assessment in the offshore industry in relation to safety aspects — safety to people's life and health, as well as environment and property. Although risk assessments may be based on both qualitative and quantitative methods, the main focus here will be on quantitative risk assessments (QRA). The development of offshore QRA has been lead by a mutual influence and interaction between the regulatory authorities for the UK and Norwegian sectors of the North Sea as well as the oil companies operating here. The experience from this area has been the main basis during the writing of this paper.     

浅谈海洋石油多功能支持平台的安全管理

简单介绍了海洋石油多功能支持平台的基本情况,总结了多功能支持平台现有的三种安全管理工具,分别是工作许可证、工作安全风险分析(JSA)和"五想五不干"行为安全观察卡;同时结合海洋石油多功能支持平台自身特点,分析了如何做好平台的安全教育培训、安全检查和班组安全建设以及应急演练等安全管理工作;通过增强全员的安全意识、及时消除事故隐患及增强基层的安全管理和加强平台的应急反应能力,提高海洋石油多功能支持平台的安全管理水平,以期达到海洋石油平台安全、健康、和谐发展的目的,可供同行借鉴和参考。     

Development of HGAPSO-SVR corrosion prediction approach for offshore oil and gas pipelines

Managing the oil and gas pipelines against corrosion is one of the major challenges of the oil and gas sector because of the complexities associated with the initiation, stabilization, and growth of the corrosion defects. The present research attempts to develop a model for predicting the maximum depth of pitting corrosion in oil and gas pipelines using SVM algorithm. In order to improve the SVM performance, Hybrid PSO and GA was utilized. Monte Carlo simulation was used to determine the time lapse for the pit depth growth. In order to implement the above modeling approaches and to prove their efficiency and accuracy against a large database, a total of 340 data samples for corrosion depth and rate are retrieved from the Iranian Oilfields. The performance of the new algorithm shows that it has higher stability and accuracy. In addition, the forecasting results of the new algorithm are compared with the 11 intelligent optimization algorithms, it shows that the novel hybrid algorithm has higher accuracy, better generalization ability, and stronger robustness. The coefficient of determination (R²) value in the testing phase for SVM-HGAPSO was estimated by 0.99. Proposed hybrid model and Monte-Carlo simulations pitting corrosion based on Poisson square wave process have been used to predict the time evolution of the mean value of the pit depth distribution for different categories of maximum pitting rates (low, moderate, high and sever). The models was validated with 4 field data for each of the pitting corrosion categories and the results agreed well. The pipelines under severe pitting corrosion rate were, more conservatively predicted by HGAPSO-SVR than those under low, moderate and high pitting corrosion rates. The results obtained demonstrate the potentials of this technique for the integrity management of corroded aged pipelines.     

陆上油田油气集输站场安全现状评价探讨

陆上油田油气集输站场安全现状评价的目的是根据该类站场安全管理和设施设备运行现状,查找出生产运行过程中各个系统存在的事故隐患,并提出针对性、技术可行性、经济合理性的安全对策措施建议。本文从安全管理和安全技术方面对油气集输站场安全现状评价的重点、存在的主要隐患、隐患产生的主要原因进行了阐述,对于加强油气集输站场的安全管理、生产过程中的安全运行和隐患治理资金的合理投入具有一定的现实意义。     

基于全生命周期的海洋油气项目集风险管理

为了强化海洋油气项目集的风险管理,以海洋油气田固定区块开发为范围,基于甲方油气田单位和乙方服务单位立场,对项目集进行全生命周期的风险管理;将海洋油气项目集生命周期划分为6个阶段;提出了滚动风险管理模式,给出各阶段风险分解结构和风险应对策略;以时间、成本、质量为控制要素,建立项目整体风险动态评估方法。研究结果表明:通过生命周期6个阶段和整体2级动态迭代风险控制,能更早发现项目集各级过程风险,有助于避免或降低风险事故带来的损失,更有效地保障项目集收益和组织战略实现,可为我国海上油气田开发风险管理提供新参考。     

Exploration of relationships between safety performance and unsafe behavior in the Chinese oil industry

Safety performance is comprised of two components, safety compliance and safety participation. However, relationships between safety performance and unsafe behavior have not been thoroughly investigated. In this work, scales for safety compliance and safety participation were revised for use in the oil industry, and job burnout scale was developed on the basis of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS). A structural equation model was then employed to investigate the interactions of these factors for 238 front-line oil workers from the PetroChina Huabei Oilfield Company in China. From the results, it was determined that workers' unsafe behavior could not be reduced significantly solely from these two dimensions of safety performance. Compared with safety participation, safety compliance was found to have a greater influence on unsafe behavior. However, job burnout was found to be a significant moderator between these two components and unsafe behavior. Furthermore, it was determined that oil workers' occupational psychological health conditions must be taken into account to improve organizational safety management and reduce workers’ unsafe behavior.     

近海埋地管道泄漏气体扩散安全评估研究

为评估近海埋地管道泄漏气体扩散风险,基于流体体积与多孔介质方法,建立水下埋地管道泄漏气体扩散预测模型,模拟气体在海底土壤及海水中的运移扩散过程。研究结果表明:泄漏气体在海底土壤中扩散时间较短,扩散直径变化经历快速增长期、缓慢增长期和平稳期3个阶段,海水中羽流直径与羽流高度均随时间增加,且相比羽流高度,羽流直径的增长速度呈现先大后小的态势;增加泄漏孔径与泄漏压力,气体在海底土壤中扩散直径增大,海水中气泡体积明显增加,上浮时间减少,水平偏移量和海面处羽流直径减小。该模型可实现对近海埋地管道气体泄漏的准确预测,得出扩散轨迹等关键羽流数据,为后续的安全评估提供数据支撑和理论支持。     

国外石油天然气行业非金属管道检测技术*

为了解国外石油天然气非金属管道缺陷检测技术发展现状,在调研相关文献报告、企业信息、设备手册基础上,介绍国外先进非金属管道检测技术及其原理、优缺点、具体设备、应用范围和未来发展趋势。研究结果表明:先进的超声相控阵和低能辐射电磁波技术对非金属管道检测难点（如:分层和接头处等特殊位置检测）具有较好的检测能力;非金属管道检测技术正在向自动化、集成化和在线监测方向发展;塑料和纤维增强复合材料大量应用于给排水、船舶、航空航天、汽车和风电叶片行业,非金属管道检测可以借鉴该类领域相关技术。研究结果可为保障石油天然气非金属管道安全运行、拓展行业应用范围、降低管道全生命周期成本提供参考。