The Risk Management Process: Fire Safety on the Oil Spills - Report Example

Fire Safety on the Oil Spills Name of Student: Name of Course: Name of Instructor: Date of Submission: Fire Safety on the Oil Spills Oil is made up of hydrocarbon molecules which are associated with a high flammability index. Generally, the flammability of oil depends on the state of refinement of oil. Ideally, refined petrol is farm much more flammable than crude oil. However, it must be acknowledged that no matter the state of oil at its time of spillage; it is highly flammable, hence increasing fire risks associated with oil spill disasters. There are various effects of fire on oil spills. One of the effects of fires on oil spills is that it leads to loss of life. According to the National Wildlife Protection, fires associated with oil spills claim the lives of several people annually in addition to leading to various degrees of injury. Moreover fires related to oil spills lead to numerous deaths of wildlife either directly through burning or as a result of destruction if their habitats. Normally, oil spills on drilling rigs and during transit either on land, water or pipeline is as a result of explosions which have an effect on the container/ media holding the oil and ultimately leading to spillage. During the explosion or time after the spillage, the slightest act of ignition leads to high combustion of the oil owing to its high flammability index. Secondly, fires have an effect of leading to destruction of property. Fires have a tendency of consuming the infrastructure which is already set up; hence leading to vast losses. In the recent oil fires a Nigerian rig, the oil mining company lost a great deal of their investment to the fire. In other instances of oil fires in pipelines in the United States and other regions in the world, oil companies lose millions of dollars in the fires (Shileche 6). Additionally, oil fires which occur on land after accidents involving trains or trailers hauling oil plunge the oil companies involved into great losses. Thirdly, fires which occur on oil spills lead to environment pollution (Flowler 1). On this point, it is worth noting that the combustion of hydrocarbons leads to the production of the harmful carbon gases. In addition to polluting the air, the carbon gases have adverse effects on the health of the people affected by the effects of the oil spill. Additionally, the carbon gases lead to the increase in the amount of green gases in the atmosphere; hence leading to climate change which is as a result of global warming. On the other hand, fire is used to control oil from spreading. In some oil spill management practices, the stakeholders involved ignite the fire deliberately stop it from spreading to other regions. This system is specifically used in the control of oil spillages on water. This system of controlling the spread of oil on water is professionally known as in situ burning. According to (Buist, McCourt, Potter, Ross & Trudel 43) in situ burning remains one of the basic oil spreading control mechanisms although its use in modern oil spill management processes is not rampant owing to its negative environmental impacts. In order to be able to manage oil spills effectively and ultimately reduce the risks related with fires, it is necessary for the stakeholders in the oil industry to come up with an appropriate risk management system. According to (Nocoll 4) the oil industry should be prepared for oil spills owing to the fact that they are due to occur in any country or in any company. However, the extent of the damage done by the oil spill is dependent on the preparedness of a specific county/ organization to manage it. A basic risk management system starts by an assessment of potential risks. At this stage, the stakeholders in the oil industry are supposed to identify potential hazards which are involved in the oil industry. Ideally, an oil spills is one of the risk factors which is due to happen. The degree of this risk factor varies from industry to industry. For instance, the risk factor of an oil spill in the oil transportation industry varies substantially from the risk involved in the oil drilling rigs. After identifying the various hazards in the oil industry, the stakeholders involved should then find out the risk involved; which is the probability of the hazard occurring. Secondly, the risk management process should then evaluate the hazards accordingly. The evaluation of the hazards is a two-step process which first identifies the likely results from the exposure to the risk factors/ hazards identified and also the people/ entities that are at a higher risk of being affected by the hazard. The next step in the risk management process would be to evaluate the risks involved. An evaluation of the risks involved is also a twofold process which involves two basic processes. One of the processes is rating of the extents of the potential harm. At this point, the stakeholders involved may identify the possible volumes of oil which a spill is a specific unit of a rig is affected, the volume of oil on transit among other specific aspects reacted to the oil (Jeynes 62). Secondly, the evaluation of the risks also evaluates the likelihood of the harm which is due to occur. Ideally, risk of fires in an oil spill varies from scenario to scenario. The risk of fire on a land oil spill is higher than in one which occurs on water. The last process involved in the risk management process is the control of risks. The measures taken to control the risks is dependent on the chances of the risk outlined in the assessment. Firstly, the oil industry is supposed to identify the control measures to be taken to prevent the risk from occurring, at this point, Deloitte recommends of a risk ownership system whereby various entities in the industry are held responsible for various occurrences (Deloitte 10). The collective risk ownership ensures that every entity in the industry works hard towards ensuring that risks are avoided. An action plan for the implementation of the control measures should also be outlined. At this point the oil industry is supposed to come up with appropriate systems of control which ensure that the risks are prevented from occurring as much as possible. Lastly, the control of risk should lead to the establishment of priorities for action in instances when an oil spill occurs/ fire occurs. Various stakeholders in the industry should be trained on the action plan so as to ensure that risk occurrences are dealt with the appropriate measures (Shileche 11). From the above discussion, it can be acknowledged that a risk management approach to oil spills and fires can enable the stakeholders in the oil industry to prevent risks/ disasters and also be able to deal with them when they occur. Owing to the fact that fires are a great risk associated with oil spills, it is important that the stakeholders in the oil industry come up with appropriate fire safety strategies to prevent fires and also deal with them when they occur. According to fire experts, the prevention of fire is the first step which is upheld by a fire strategy. Prevention of a fire during an oil spills states with the prevention of the oil spill itself. It is then followed by the elimination of activities which are due to ignite the oil in instances when the fire occurs for instance the banning of smoking. It also involves the use of materials which are fire proof. Second in the strategy is an emergency response plan which is a basic way to mitigate the damage in instances when fires occur (Paton 213). Next in the fire strategy, the stakeholders involved should invest heavily on fire fighting and prevention technologies. Such includes fire extinguishers and fire fighting gear. After this, the fire strategy should have enforcement measures which ensure that the oil industry is always up to date with fire fighting and prevention mechanisms. On this point, regular inspection by standardization bodies would be a sure way of enabling the oil industry meets the required standards. Lastly an ideal fire strategy calls for training of all the people who are at risk from the fire hazard. This ensures that all the stakeholders have handson knowledge on how to deal with fire disasters when they occur and also technical knowhow on how to prevent fires (Son, Aziz & Pena-Mora 413). Lastly, it is important to discuss about the various ways in which oil spills affects the environment. As identified earlier, both the oil spill and fires associated with it have adverse effects on the climate. Firstly, oil spills lead to pollution of the environment. Ideally, oil is not bio degradable hence has a lasting impact on the environment. The smoke form the combustion of the oil contributes to global warming due to the high percentages of carbon gases emitted. Oil spills also have a negative effect on the marine life. Oil clogs the gills and other organs of the marine life leading to their death. It also has an effect of covering the water hence preventing the absorption of air into the water leading to death of the marine life below it. Oil spills also pollute the environment; hence making it inhospitable for instance the effect of the BP oil spill on the pristine waters (Flowler 1). Lastly, oil spills tend to clog the feathers and wings of the aquatic birds; ultimately influencing their flying ability negatively and their death. Highlighting the main points discussed in this chapter, this literature review has been able to give an insight into the various aspects related to fires and oil spills. From the literature review, it can be noted that fire has various effect on oil spills. It was seen that it leads to the damage of property, loss of life and environmental pollution. It was also identified that fire is sometimes used to control the extent to which fire spreads, a process known as n situ burning of oil. The literature review also noted that risk management approaches are effective in enabling the oil industry combat the challenges posed by fires and oil spills. It was seen that risk management involves various steps which enable the oil industry prevent oil spills, prevent fires and ultimately deal with the occurrences when they happen. Owing to the fact that fires are due to occur in oil spills, the need for fire safety strategies was emphasized. Lastly, the review gave an insight into the various ways in which oil spills and fires affect the environment. Works Cited Buist, I., McCourt, J., Potter, S., Ross, S., & Trudel, K. In Situ Burning. Pure Appl. Chem., 71.1 (1999); 43–65 Deloitte. Nine principles of a Risk Intelligent Framework for Risk Management — A briefing for Federal executives, (2006); 1- 15 Flowler, T. Experts Weigh Spill's Lasting Effects. The Wall Street Journal.(2012). http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303624004577339943866694420 Jeynes, J. Risk Management 10 Principles. Butterworth Heinemann (2002) Nocol. A. Preparedness for Oil Spills, PAJ Symposium 2012, (2012); 1- 20 Paton, D. Stress In Disaster Response: A Risk Management Approach. Disaster Prevention and Management. 12. 3. (2003); 203 – 209 Shileche, M. How Can Oil Tanker Fire Disasters In Kenya Be Mitigated Through Community Based Disaster Management Approaches?, Oxford Brookes University, (2012); 1- 82 Son, J., Aziz, Z., & Pena-Mora, F. Supporting Disaster Response and Recovery Through Improved Situation Awareness. Structural Survey. 26. 5. (2007); 411 - 425 Read More