Management Principles in the Context of the Oil and Gas Industry - Essay Example

? HSE MANAGEMENT Introduction Oil is one of the most valuable commodities in the modern history. Fluctuationsof oil prices cause serious ripple effects in the global economy. It is due to its immense significance and usage in every sector of the economy that makes it be called the black gold. Refining of oil is risky and involves health, safety and environmental issues. This paper looks at good HSE management principles and tools in the context of oil and gas industry as part of the overall management strategy (Cordesman and Al-Rodhan, 2006, pp20-29; Spilsbury, R and Spilsbury, L., 2011, pp12-30). Oil refining process releases numerous emissions in the atmosphere causing air pollution. Industrial accidents such as fire and explosions are also rampant in oil and gas industry. Environmental and safety concerns make oil refineries be located far from urban areas. Corrosion is a chief problem faced throughout the process line of hydrocarbon refining process. Corrosion refers to deterioration of metal components such as pipes that convey the petroleum products. In the refining process, corrosion occurs in forms, such as pitting corrosion from water droplets and stress corrosion from SO2 attack. Periodic cleaning and use of corrosion resistant metals prevents and controls corrosion. Unchecked corrosion leads to oil leaks and spillages that are environmental hazards. Where gas cannot be stored, it poses a risk of fire or explosion. Flaring and venting ensure safe disposal of hydrocarbon gases. Venting refers to the discharge of gases into the environment in the oil production process. Through venting, toxic gases such as hydrogen sulphide are released to the environment resulting to fatalities. Venting releases greenhouse gases such as methane leading to global warming. On the other hand, Flaring refers to burning of natural gas in the routine of gas and oil production process. Carbon Fraying produces carbon dioxide predominantly. Both flaring and venting have great environmental impact on climate through global warming (Haddow and Bullock, 2006, p45; Heidersbach, R and Heidersbach, B, 2011, p260). Process Safety Management (PSM) is proactive identification, mitigation, correction or prevention of release of poisonous chemicals that could be caused by failures in processes, procedures or equipment. It ensures that process facilities such as oil and gas plants, chemical plants, and offshore platforms operate safely. Process oriented reactions such as corrosion, runaway chemical reactions and unintended mixing of hazardous chemicals are liable for release of toxic gases, explosions and fires. The need to reduce safety incidents caused by hazardous materials and process upset, and the need to meet safety regulations drives PSM programs. The aim of PSM is to aid employees to mitigate episodic release of hazardous chemicals that would be catastrophic to the workplace and surrounding community (National Research Council. 2011, pp6-14). Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) is the most important step in Process safety management (PSM). PHA seeks to identify and analyse the significance of potential hazards caused by handling or processing highly hazardous chemicals. It analyses causes and significance of fires, explosions, flammable toxic release and spills of hazardous chemicals. Focus is on factors that may affect the process such as human actions, instrumentation utilities and equipment in use (Skelton, 1997, pp 172-174). Written operating procedures must be implemented and must be consistent with process safety information. They prove clear instructions for undertaking the covered processes. Each task and procedure relating to the covered process should be clear, consistent and well communicated to the employees. Steps in every operating phase include initial startup, normal operations, temporary operations, emergency shutdown, among others. Operation procedures should also include operating limits such as, consequence of deviation, and steps required to correct the deviation or avoid it (Schuster, 2008, pp56-80). Employees serve a tremendously important role in the success of the organization. The employers should involve them in the initial stages of implementing process system management. PSM requires employers to come up with a plan for implementing employees’ participation. An effective employee trainee program should be implemented to ensure employees safety. PSM requires training, which emphasizes on process hazards emergency operations including shutdown and other safe practices that may apply on an employee’s job. New employees should be trained, and refresher training be offered to experienced employees (Sutton, 2011, p100). Incase employers hire contractors to work on highly hazardous processes, they need to establish a screening procedure that will ensure they hire contractors whose working will not compromise safety and health in the facility. The contractors must also possess the required job skills, knowledge and certification, for example, those required of pressure vessel welders. The contract employees should work with the utmost skill, because most of their work involves specialized and potentially hazardous tasks. Running a well maintained process that recognizes employee welfare, that is, both contract employees and organization’s employees is paramount (Bai, Y and Bai K, 2012, p960). PSM also looks at mechanical integrity that ensures design and installation of process equipment is correct facilitating proper operation. Mechanical integrity relates to pressure vessels, piping systems, venting system, emergency shutdown systems, control systems and pumps. Generally accepted engineering practices should be applied in testing and inspecting the operation of process equipments. Deficiency of equipments outside the defined acceptable limits should be corrected before further use. Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) are core elements of the oil industry that need proper management. A strong sense of responsibility for people and environment will make the company be recognized globally. Through key believes in safety management, the organization fosters positive HSE culture. Health and safety of people should have a first priority. Injuries and occupational illness should be prevented. Oil companies should aspire to obtain environmental certification such as ISO14001. They should protect ground water and soil through programs that prevent potential oil leaks and spills. HSE management is centered on identification and managing all HSE hazards. Hazards are systematically identified and their causes and effects determined. Assessment of the risks is then done against specified screening criteria that ensure the risk is As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP). Significant hazards and their effects are recorded on a risk register and appropriate measures for reducing or controlling the risk adopted. If control is lost, a plan for recovery is adopted. There are different risk tools applied in assessing the risk; their selection depends on the phase of the project and information available. Some typical assessment tools include HAZOP, HAZID and HEMP (Sadiq, N. and Khan A. 2011, pp4-46). Hazard operability (HAZOP) queries systematically how deviations from the design would affect operability. Once the deviations are identified, assessment is made to evaluate the consequences of the negative effects in plant operation. For HAZOP to be applied, nodes need to be identified. The nodes represent sections of a process that changes continuously. Petrol pump is an example of node since it is subject to pressure changes as the oil flows. From the nodes, process parameters are identified. Parameters such as flow rate, density, and pressure are identified in case of oil pipeline. On these parameters, design limits that serve as guidelines are set. With the nodes and safe operating limits, hazards are identified as deviations from the set limits. This is done using deviation guidewords such as low, high, wrong, extreme, among other. At this point, event and causes can be related to the node; however, the hazard might have a consequence to another node. Through proper instrumentation, the system should be able to announce the hazards. These alarms tell the operator that something is wrong or unsafe condition is developing. Once the hazard is identified, the team should identify the consequences by ensuring that safeguards are in place. Some consequences may be environmental, safety or economic (Crawley, Preston and Tyler, 2008, pp11-15). In HAZID (Hazard Identification) study, a team of competent engineers is involved in checking for hazards in each area of installation. This is done against a checklist. When the team agrees to the presence of a hazard, the risk involved is assessed. On a hazard worksheet, all the possible ways of eliminating the hazard or controlling the risk are noted. The hazards in an oil, petrol, or gas industry will come from conveyance or transport of these hazardous materials through pipeline, sea or road. In industrial oil plants, typical hazards will arise from gas and fuel stored in pressure vessels (Sutton, 2010, pp132-740). Hazards and Effects Management Process (Hemp) is a structured methodology used in the identification, assessment, control and recovery of hazards. HEMP focuses on management of risk, rather than management of hazards in isolation. First, hazardous and their effects that includes, hazardous events, threats and escalating factors are identified. Assessment of the effect to establish a probability of occurrence and brutality of exposure follows. Hazards and effects are recorded in a predefined form. Gap analysis is then done between assessed risk and acceptable risk. A risk reduction criterion is adopted in decision-making (Sandom and Harvey, 2004, pp199-201). Understanding causal factors that lead to accidents is necessary in developing an accident prevention strategy. Accident causation factors are; breached defenses, error promoting conditions, latent failures and flawed management decisions. Errors make tasks unpredictable generating unexpected hazardous situations. Introduction to human reliability analysis techniques THERP help in removing unpredictability on tasks. The probability that a person performs a system related process correctly, without performing any extraneous activity that would degrade the system is called human reliability. With the development of science, the relation of physical and mental work is changing. Mental processes such as perception, attention memory and thinking are favored to muscle work. The responsibility of the operator is increased since human error on his part can trigger serious consequences. THERP is a technique used to predict the rate of human error. The tasks that a person performs are split to subtasks for which error prediction is done. From the subtasks, the probability of successfully completing the overall project can be predicted. THERP also looks at performance shaping factors that affect operator’s functions. Some of performance shaping factors includes operating conditions, human abilities, externally exposed factors and time duration (Gertman and Blackman, 1994, p32; Hollnagel, 1998, p67). It is evident that there has been enormous development on safety issues in oil and gas industries. Health and safety assessment tools are now being adopted in other industries due to their effectiveness in the oil and gas industry. Currently low data exists on human reliability and is inappropriate due to differences in environment, training, work load, among others. In future, continued improvement that incorporates human factors into a quantitative risk assessment is necessary. The paper has been able to look at good HSE management principles in the context of oil and gas industry as part of the overall management strategy. It has also demonstrated HSE management tools including HAZID, HEMP and HAZOP, and also made an insight on human reliability and accident causation. Bibliography Bai, Y. and Bai K. 2012. Subsea Engineering Handbook. Waltham: Gulf Professional Publishing. Cordesman, A. and Al-Rodhan, K. 2006. The Changing Dynamics of Energy in the Middle East. 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