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Taking a new approach to risk management Company executive talks about how industry safety management has changed following the Gulf Deepwater Horizon disaster Alan Bailey Petroleum News
In the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster and the ensuing worst ever oil spill in the United States many minds have focused on why the disaster occurred and what can be done to prevent another such catastrophic event in the future. And the U.S. Department of the Interior, the agency with oversight of oil and gas activities on the U.S. outer continental shelf, has issued a series of new rules and regulations addressing offshore safety, including a rule requiring the implementation of safety and environmental management systems, known as SEMS systems, by companies operating in the outer continental shelf oil and gas industry.
On Aug. 16 at the Marcus Evans Arctic Drilling Safety Preparedness and Response Conference Aaron Swanson, director of quality and reliability for the western hemisphere for Baker Hughes, talked about how the oil industry’s approach to risk and competence management has changed in the post-Deepwater Horizon world.
Changing approach During the 1990s companies generally focused on competency training programs designed for employees with less than five years of experience, on the assumption that people with more experience can perform their jobs better than less experienced personnel, Swanson said. Published papers tended to talk about the experience gap of people new to the industry, and the emphasis was on managing technical risk and the use of knowledge management systems to preserve and make available institutional knowledge.
But following Deepwater Horizon the focus has shifted to the training of all employees, not just new starts, with an emphasis on technical knowledge and risk awareness, and a drive towards continuous process improvement, Swanson said.
Triggered by disasters Regulatory changes such as the introduction of SEMS regulations typically follow major disasters, Swanson said. Investigations of the 2003 Columbia space shuttle disaster, for example, highlighted the critical importance of decision making around low probability but high impact events — a key recommendation from those investigations was the need for new thinking and changes in individual values and beliefs for those working in the space program, he said.
And, in the fishing industry, some major accidents and a very high fatality rate among fishermen after an expansion of the U.S. exclusive economic zone in 1977 led in the 1990s to the U.S. Coast Guard mandating safety training. This training again focused on low probability, high impact events: It resulted in a dramatic drop in fatalities, Swanson said.
New thinking The oil industry has traditionally done a tremendous job of reducing occupational injuries, with a better injury record than many other industries, Swanson said. But safety-related metrics have not properly driven attention toward low probability, high impact events such as loss of well control. And dealing more effectively with these types of critical risk while focusing more on process safety will require new thinking, recognizing that unique situations that may pose high risk have no learning curve; that people tend to gravitate towards positive potential outcomes while ignoring the possibility of negative outcomes; that gambling on probabilities when lives are at stake can prove fatal; and that a lucky track record of success can lead to a mindset that minimizes perceived risks.
Against this background, the SEMS regulations provide a mechanism for managing risks, but individual companies need to decide on what actions they need to take to develop their risk management programs.
Risk awareness & assessment At Baker Hughes, the company has always had a program of hazard and risk awareness training. But now the company is placing additional emphasis on critical equipment; the use of standard operating procedures; and training in health, safety and the environment, Swanson said. New hires are immediately introduced to the company’s competency and change management programs. And an assessment process, designed to re-enforce the values associated with controlling risks, applies to all personnel. The company also establishes metrics that monitor the extent to which people follow procedures, using these metrics as leading indicators of a potential safety problem.
Under the assessment program, an assessor makes an initial evaluation of an employee’s knowledge and experience. Assessors then periodically evaluate what employees are doing, with the risk involved in a job step determining the assessment frequency. An assessment can involve observing someone doing a job. And assessments can ensure that old habits are not carried forward into the use of new technologies or processes, Swanson said.
Assessments provide opportunities for observing how work is done, discovering ways of improving work procedures and emphasizing any risks in new procedures. This type of observation is particularly important in Arctic operations, where it may be necessary to carry out activities in new ways, Swanson said.
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