Reduced manning with improved safety and reliability: how classification societies and digital solutions can support operators

2019 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 821
Author(s):  
Mark Tipping

The oil and gas industry is moving steadily towards automation and remote control of processes, which has the added advantage of removing personnel from the immediate danger of the offshore workplace. However, significant challenges remain to be met before the more complex type of offshore facility (especially floating facilities) can be operated fully unmanned, particularly when it comes to maintenance and repair campaigns. In particular, even though human life may be protected, the consequence of a major pollution incident occurring as a result of lack of sufficient manned surveillance is increasingly unacceptable in today’s society, and solutions have to protect these requirements as well. With today’s technologies and the pace of innovation, it is not difficult to envisage facilities in the near future where manned intervention is reduced to a far lower level than currently prevalent, perhaps even eliminated as robotics steadily advance. We can already begin to consider design features and systems that will make new facilities ready for such advances so that projects can absorb benefits from innovation as it occurs. The role of independent bodies such as the classification societies is to assess the design, construction and operation of offshore facilities and issue certification that gives regulators, financiers and insurers alike the confidence to support developments. For floating facilities this includes formal classification and a requirement for detailed knowledge of the state of the structure. This paper explores the methods that the classification society can use to support the aims of the offshore industry for reduced manning with improved safety and reliability.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ning Lou ◽  
Ezra Wari ◽  
James Curry ◽  
Kevin McSweeney ◽  
Rick Curtis ◽  
...  

This research identifies key factors, or safety culture categories, that can be used to help describe the safety culture for the offshore oil and gas industry and develop a comprehensive offshore safety culture assessment toolkit for use by the US Gulf of Mexico (GoM) owners and operators. Detailed questionnaires from selected safety culture frameworks of different industries were collected and analyzed to identify important safety culture factors and key questions for assessment. Safety frameworks from different associations were investigated, including the Center for Offshore Safety (COS), Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The safety culture factors of each of these frameworks were generalized and analyzed. The frequency of the safety culture factors in each framework was analyzed to explore commonality. The literature review and analysis identified a list of common factors among safety culture frameworks.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-65
Author(s):  
P. N. Mikheev

The article discusses issues related to the impact of climate change on the objects of the oil and gas industry. The main trends in climate change on a global and regional (on the territory of Russian Federation) scale are outlined. Possible approaches to the identification and assessment of climate risks are discussed. The role of climatic risks as physical factors at various stages of development and implementation of oil and gas projects is shown. Based on the example of oil and gas facilities in the Tomsk region, a qualitative assessment of the level of potential risk from a weather and climatic perspective is given. Approaches to creating a risk management and adaptation system to climate change are presented.


2018 ◽  
pp. 315
Author(s):  
Greg Moores ◽  
Mark Andrews ◽  
Amanda Whitehead

As the Atlantic Canadian oil and gas industry continues to mature, offshore regulators face new and varied issues as they work to implement the objectives of the Atlantic Accords. Laws that were largely developed before the Atlantic Canadian offshore contained producing projects are now being applied to a diverse and evolving industry. As is often the case, laws, as expressed on paper, can prove difficult to apply to each unique set of circumstances that arises in practice.Fundamentally, many of the powers of the Atlantic Canadian offshore regulators rely on the concept of “waste.” An offshore regulator can order a company to commence, continue, or increase production of petroleum where it is of the opinion that such an order “would stop waste.” Conversely, the regulators may order a decrease, cessation, or suspension of the production of petroleum for the same reason. In certain situations of “waste,” the Accord Acts provide for a “forced marriage” via compulsory unitization.While “waste” is instrumental to the authority of the offshore regulators, by necessity its definition is open to some interpretation. This article will explore various interpretations of “waste,” and examine the role of waste in the Atlantic Canadian offshore regimes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Luis Delgado Rivera

Abstract This paper presents a systemic approach using Engineering and analytics methods to avail the fastest and safest responses to recovering business operations after Abqaiq Plants major disruption after the 2019 September 14th incident. This new approach using value and agile engineering, risk management methodologies combined with the business continuity model suggested was successfully applied to recover Abqaiq Plants Operations after catastrophic events occurred. This paper pretends to serve as example about how the business continuity plan should response to a major emergency and how this planning activity could be effectively supported using a Value Oriented Engineering Solutions (VOES). This VOES approach is based on Business continuity framework and adapted for use during emergency situations to generate effective and urgent responses to recover one of the most strategical operations in the Oil and Gas Industry worldwide ahead of the last year significant disruption. VOES approach vastly implemented during Abqaiq Plants Restoration allowed a 100% functional recovery on 9 days, 5 days in advance to the most optimistic scenario. This paper shows a case study implemented for major instrumentation and electrical equipment activities performed in UA Spheroids plant, one of the most affected area and responsible to process the 100% of the Abqaiq Plants Oil Production rate. This paper pretends to contribute with the research and practice on business continuity management. Considering a particular approach to BCM, incorporating value-oriented engineering solutions in the developing of continuity plans; we apply model-based techniques to provide quality assurance in the elaboration process, and to automate the generation/update of a BCP. On the practical side, this study converts Operational, Maintenance, Safety and Reliability perspectives in a holistic view provided from Engineering solutions responsible to generate the guidelines for an agile, effective and realizable recovery plan.


Author(s):  
John Henderson ◽  
Vidar Hepsø ◽  
Øyvind Mydland

The concept of a capability platform can be used to argue how firms engage networked relationships to embed learning/performance into distinctive practices rather than focusing only on technology. In fact the capability language allows us to unpack the role of technology by emphasizing its interaction with people, process, and governance issues. The authors address the importance of a capability approach for Integrated Operations and how it can improve understanding of how people, process, technology, and governance issues are connected and managed to create scalable and sustainable practices. The chapter describes the development of capabilities as something that is happening within an ecology. Using ecology as a metaphor acknowledges that there is a limit to how far it is possible to go to understand organizations and the development of capabilities in the oil and gas industry as traditional hierarchies and stable markets. The new challenge that has emerged with integrated operations is the need for virtual, increasingly global, and network based models of work. The authors couple the ecology approach with a capability platform approach.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document