Health and Safety

Introduction

In today’s business world, all organizations are bound to meet the health and safety of their employees and any other person associated with it regardless of the industry. However, some industries tend to be at high risk because of the nature of their product and operations. Organizations that fail to comply with health and safety regulations tend to be at high risk compared to their competitors in the industry, and they may lose their employees or impact their environment negatively. Managing health and safety is an integral part of all business. A well-managed organization ensures that no health and safety hazards are present in any case. Oil and gas companies are considered to be at a higher risk due to their manufacturing, and extraction processes which can affect the lives and health of the people undertaking these processes (Paterson, 2017). ??Therefore these activities must be monitored from the extraction point to the endpoint. Generally, this industry has safe records, though accidents occur from time to time leading to damage of assets and loss of life (Kelland, 2014).

The health and safety executive is a United Kingdom body that is responsible for encouraging companies to enhance workplace health, employee welfare and safety and occupational risk research. The health and safety executives believe that every individual has the right to get back home safely after a day in their workplace. Therefore their mission is to prevent injuries, death and illness while working in the company. HSE is responsible for the development of new laws and the formulation of health and safety policies. It also enforces legal requirements and advisory services to the gas and oil industry (Bergh et al. 2014).

According to Omeje, (2017), duties performed by the health and safety officers include the following; provision of a safe working environment to the workers, ensuring that there are well-communicated rules and regulations regarding health and safety, ensuring that all employees in the company are well trained, proper documentation on any activity taking place in the company and ensure that inspection is done on equipment’s such as fire alarms, extinguishers etc. The personal protective equipment should be supplied by the management and encourage workers to wear them while undertaking their activities.?

Discussion

Need to remain compliant and up to date with legislation for oil and gas companies

Health and safety provide a backbone to protect organization employees if the rules are followed at all times. Employers must protect their employees from harm by providing a safe, and comfortable environment where duties can be carried out at all times. The RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, diseases, and Dangerous Occurrences regulation in 1997), ensure that organization management, self-employed individuals and workers always report serious workplace accidents, major injuries, work-related diseases and dangerous occurrences. Duty holder installations that have safety cases acceptance report incidents to minimize any burden in the oil and gas industry.? After the RIDDOR 2013 was introduced, employers now have options to report such incidents to HSENI regardless of who operates the business. According to RIDDOR dangerous occurrences which must be reported include explosions of gas cylinders, electrical short circuits, an uncontrolled escape of substances etc. (Griffith, & Howarth, 2014).

Keeping RIDDOR records ensures that there is a recording of all accidents, injuries, and work-related deaths lasting for more than seven days, keeping organized records up to date, keeping employees information properly and confidential, and ensuring that all records are safe by recording them on computers for easy retrieval. ?Organization managers should ensure that they keep their health and safety system under review, particularly on how activities are carried out. The UK oil and gas industry is committed to protecting workers, and the natural environment and maintaining safe operations. To minimize harm the companies have to focus on process safety and ensure that there is effective containment of hydrocarbons and other associated hazards (Griffith, & Howarth, 2014).

European Union Directives and UK Law (HSE)

European directives cover a wide range of business health and safety requirements in all businesses operating in any part of Europe. It is a central provider of health and safety information and guidance in Europe. Working with governments, employers and employees, EU-OSHA can identify current and future risks and share the information, good practices and advice that can improve the working life of organization employees (Omeje, 2017). The directives ensure that there is the protection of employees by putting up preventative measures that protect against work-related accidents. The directives require that organization employees meet the following; keep accident reports, provide adequate training on matters concerning health and safety, take necessary measures for first aid, provide free health for workers in every part of the work and evaluate occupational risk about job type. It also requires that organization workers use machinery safely and correctly, give warning on any dangerous situation and work hand in hand with their employers to ensure that the health and safety rules are followed. In this industry, every worker should be examined regularly by the company medical professional to be medically fit to operate in the industry (Martínez-Aires et al. 2016).

Justification for reduction of risk and the use of risk management strategies

Oil and gas companies are usually faced with risks such as volatile pricing, an increase in health safety, and environmental pressure which makes risk management an integral part of daily organization activities.? However, risks related to business interruption, asset damage, worker injuries, and damage to properties happen in normal oil and gas activities. ?Human health and safety remain the first priority in the oil and gas industry. The offshore operators have been working to improve and reinforce their risk management activities to avoid related or similar accidents in future. ?All stakeholders in this industry should ensure that they share the responsibilities of managing risk and also ensure that all their partners in this business are doing the same to increase consolidation in the industry. Effective management risk management should contain holistic risk management, a balance between the technical and human factors and a balance between lagging and leading activities (Roncoroni et al., 2015).

A holistic risk management strategy spans all stages of any product operation and development. The factors that lead to risk appear in every stage of product development therefore holistic risk management can reduce these risks. The balance between the human and technical factors is another strategy that can help oil and Gas Companies reduce risk. While technical factors are critical in this industry, analysis of the available historical data shows that human-related factors cause accidents. A risk management strategy that will focus on one factor will not operate effectively. Therefore gas and oil management should integrate both the technical and human factors. Today many companies usually focus on the lagging indicators as an effective way of measuring risk. However, a majority of offshore accidents have a very low probability with high consequences to the company. Key leading indicator ensures measuring the existing and compliance of risk management and investigating systems. Leading indicators are used to monitor how safe an element can be managed (Roncoroni et al., 2015).

Safety cases are guides to offshore installations, and these guides help individuals who may be affected to understand what is required of them by the regulation. Its main aim is to assist licensees, installation owners, installation operators and any other person who is involved in offshore activities. This helps to reduce accident hazards to the employees on offshore and other connected activities. Therefore the safety case document gives confidence to HSE and the individual on duty that the duty holder can control major risky accidents effectively. The safety cases should be reviewed and revised over time to keep them up to date. The revision that can lead to change is submitted to HSE for acceptance. The HSE can prevent the change by not accepting the revised changes if the new changes do not satisfy the requirements. This helps them to identify if the referred safer strategy has relevant information to enable them to make an acceptance decision (Paterson, 2017).

Need for Training and Updating of Employees related to different issues

Employees training provides them with an opportunity to expand their knowledge base. A skilled workforce in the oil and gas sector always looks to continue growing and recover from the economic crisis. Training employees in the oil and gas industry enhances their careers, which makes them remain valuable to their employers. This industry is cyclical in nature; thus continuous learning will expand their knowledge base which provides opportunities for the company to grow. Productive employees tend to be the most significant assets of the company if they leave the experience and skills they have will take years to gain again. Employee training provides an opportunity for all employees to acquire relevant knowledge and skills. Training benefits the industry as a whole, employee’s failure or success can impact the company (Debela, 2014). These types of training in the oil and gas industry include; environmental awareness, first aid, work permits, behavioural safety and risk assessment. Health, safety and security training in the oil and gas industry is a high priority due to the hazardous nature of its operations (Debela, 2014).

Permit to work is a system that is used to coordinate and control all the activities in the company's operating environments. It is a part of safety systems that help to determine how dangerous jobs can be carried out safely. The processing of oil and gas requires rigorous control of their activities. A firm permit-to-work system helps the company establish executive work control (Paterson, 2017). It ensures that there is proper authorization of the work, ensuring that necessary precautions are taken, provides a procedure that ensures that activities are conducted more carefully. The work permits include; a hot work permit, cold work permit, confined space entry and special permit. The hot work permit is used in activities that generate heat, e.g. welding, drilling, combustion of engines etc. The cold work permits can be used in works where there is no ignition, and all harmful substances have been eliminated. A confined space entry permit is necessary while entering into confined spaces, e.g. vessel, pits or tanks. It is used in conjunction with a code that describes the process that workers have to follow. Special permits in the oil and gas industry cover hazards such as power supplies, harmful chemicals, hazardous conditions and excavation. Every permit provides the company with a checklist of equipment that will help workers take precautions while working in the industry (Paterson, 2017).

Gas and oil firms are dangerous working environments; therefore, employees should take precautions on potential hazards and risks involved. By wearing Effective personal protective equipment, the risk and accidents can be reduced. Individuals working in this industry need to understand the risks associated and ensure that they take precautions with the use of PPE (Mariano & La Rovere, 2017). Failure to wear these personal protective pieces of equipment is a breach of legislation and can increase the rate of risks in the industry.

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Statistics related to offshore accidents and risk

The offshore workers are usually exposed to various hazards that are associated with the use of chemicals, slips, manual handling etc. Currently these offshore incidents are half compared to the onshore activities. The number of ill health offshore reported cases has increased over the years, although the annual report since the year 2000 has always been just below 15. In the year 2016, the ill health cases reported were only 10. These occupational diseases are linked with the activities that an individual is undertaking. E.g. in the year 2016, seven employees were reported to have a musculoskeletal condition that is related to the use of vibration machines and tools thus damaging arm and hand nerves.

A review of safety performance by Health and Safety 2017 shows that the previous year was overshadowed by fatalities that are related to the work in December. It occurred during the unpacking stage of offshore containers. ?The non-fatal accident rates that have been reported by HSE have increased from 249 to 301 between the years 2015 and 2016 per 100,000 employees. The 2015 rate tends to be the lowest while the 2016 rate is the third lowest in history since 1995-1996 when the first measurement was done. ?Despite the hazards that are associated with the gas and oil industry, the comparison that has been conducted across the gas and oil industry clearly shows how companies have managed risks to their personnel overall.? Accidents in the oil and gas industry have reduced since the year 2016 when the benchmarking process began in this industry.

In the year 2016, thirteen offshore workers lost their lives in an accident that involved a helicopter in the Norwegian North Sea. After a duration of three accident-free years, another non-fatal accident occurred on the UKCS in 2016, increasing the UKCS five-year average all-accident rate from 0.72 to 0.95 per 100,000 flying hours. Considering the number of working hours and days lost through injuries and illness in the industry, it is clear that the Health and Safety Act is essential since if the business does not have healthy fit workers, they cannot meet the requirements and won't be in the work premise for long. Comparison across sectors helps to give a sense of how well the industry is managing the risks to its personnel overall. Despite the significant hazards associated with the sector, the 2017 oil and gas health and safety reports show that the three-year average non-fatal injury rate per 100,000 employees is below in comparison to other comparable sectors (Health & Safety Report 2017).

The application of one risk assessment model

The operation of oil and gas activities requires a lot of investment in terms of money, time and technology. This is due to uncertainties that are present in the industry, economically and environmentally. According to Hyett (2010), Risk assessment is the identification of risk in the industry and its magnitude of threat by analysing any potential risk that can bring harm to the workers and the community. ?The oil and gas industry uses various methods to assess risk which includes operational risk assessment, real-time risk assessment and dynamic risk assessment. Therefore it involves qualitative and quantitative analysis of associated risk to safeguard the public, workers and the environment in general. The environmental risk assessment model involves the steps that help the company to mitigate risk and manage it (Ingraffea et al., 2014). These steps include; risk screening, risk analysis, risk interaction and risk mitigation and management.

The initial stage of the environmental assessment is problem formulation which involves screening the human health risk, receptors, chemicals and any exposure paths. Problem formulation aims to develop a model that will describe the organization's projects and their interaction with humans and the environment. The model will help the management to determine what other information may be required to complete the assessment process and determine which pathways, receptors and chemicals will be relevant to their project. Risk analysis should be carried out from the first stage of risk assessment. This involves estimating infrastructure risks that can be brought about by the failures of equipment due to human error or mechanical failure. Checklist-based brainstorming is a technique that is commonly used to asses risks. According to Torres, (2016) Risk assessment can be determined by qualitative or quantitative risk value that is related to recognized risk. Quantitative assessment requires the calculation of the risk rating of two components which are the severity and the loss if an accident happens. Therefore it does describe not only the quantity of risk but also the management plan that can help to reduce these risks. The result of the assessment considers both human health under different assessments and the contribution of gas and oil risk (Lees, 2012).

Conclusion

From the report, it can be concluded that health and safety in the oil and gas industry is an important aspect due to the risks that are associated with its operation. Medically fit employees are motivated, and this will lead to high productivity and a reduction of absenteeism. Reduction of risk in the workplace leads to commitment in both the employees and employees to take more care and attention at their workplace. Management should ensure that they train their personnel on precautionary measures at all levels of their operations. The training expands their knowledge base and creates opportunities to grow their skills and the company as a whole. Every organization has its inherent dangers; therefore, reporting injuries, diseases and any other dangerous occurrences regulation should remain compliant at all times. These incidents should be reported at all times regardless of their size.

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References

Bergh, L. I. V., Hinna, S., Leka, S., & Jain, A. (2014). Developing a performance indicator for psychosocial risk in the oil and gas industry. Safety science, 62, 98-106.

Debela, E. Y. (2014). “Mission Responsible”-Code of Conducts Effectiveness within the Oil and Gas Industry: The Case of Qatar.

Griffith, A., & Howarth, T. (2014). Construction health and safety management. Routledge.

Hyett, D. (2010, April). Environmental risk assessment in environmental impact assessment–optional or mandatory?. In IAIA10 Conference Proceedings: The Role of Impact Assessment in Transitioning to the Green Economy. 30th Annual Meeting of the International Association for Impact Assessment (pp. 6-11).

Ingraffea, A. R., Wells, M. T., Santoro, R. L., & Shonkoff, S. B. (2014). Assessment and risk analysis of casing and cement impairment in oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania, 2000–2012. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201323422.

Kelland, M. A. (2014). Production chemicals for the oil and gas industry. CRC press.

Lees, F. (2012). Lees' Loss prevention in the process industries: Hazard identification, assessment and control. Butterworth-Heinemann.

Mariano, J., & La Rovere, E. (2017). Environmental impacts of the oil industry

Martínez-Aires, M. D., Rubio Gámez, M. C., & Gibb, A. (2016). The impact of occupational health and safety regulations on prevention through design in construction projects: Perspectives from Spain and the United Kingdom. Work, 53(1), 181-191.

Omeje, K. (2017). High stakes and stakeholders: Oil conflict and security in Nigeria. Routledge.

Paterson, J. (2017). Behind the Mask: Regulating health and safety in Britain's offshore oil and gas industry. Routledge.

Roncoroni, A., Fusai, G., & Cummins, M. (2015). Handbook of multi-commodity markets and products: structuring, trading and risk management. John Wiley & Sons.

Torres, L., Yadav, O. P., & Khan, E. (2016). A review of risk assessment techniques for hydraulic fracturing water and produced water management implemented in onshore unconventional oil and gas production. Science of the Total Environment, 539, 478-493.

Health & safety report 2017; Oil and Gas UK.? Retrieved from https://oilandgasuk.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Health-Safety-Report-2017-Oil-Gas-UK.pdf on August 2018

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