The UK portion of the North West Europe Continental Shelf is a harsh and unforgiving environment in which to explore for and produce oil and gas. In that environment we learn to expect the unexpected and to respond effectively to “abnormal” situations.
An abnormal situation is something other than the “steady state” condition; it could be anything from a minor upset that affects operations, to a temporary loss of logistics support or even the identified impairment of some safety-critical element.
Our prime consideration in any abnormal situation is to avoid any increased risk to safety. This is why we use operational risk assessments (ORA) to manage the situation and put in place an effective solution, enabling us to continue to operate and work safely until the abnormality is remedied, or to take any necessary shutdown actions.
Although operators typically have good procedures in place to manage abnormal situations, Oil & Gas UK recognised that there was a need for a more uniform approach to ORA and a more common understanding of when ORAs are appropriate and when they may not be.
Therefore, over the last six months, Oil & Gas UK has worked on the development of a good practice guidance document on ORA, drawing on support from duty-holder members and involving the expertise of a diverse range of personnel, including offshore installation managers (OIMs), technical authorities and safety engineers.
The workgroup aimed to bring the right people together to think about safe and effective ways of overcoming abnormal situations. In many ways, this is exactly what the finished guidance document tells us – that in any abnormal situation, it’s crucial to have the right people with the right expertise assessing the situation and attendant risk in order to come up with the right solution.
What the document provides is guidance on ORAs as just one element of a managed and effective response to impaired safety-critical elements or other abnormal operational situations where there is the potential to increase major accident risk. It also recommends the use of contingency planning or “rule sets” to guide response where it is feasible to anticipate and plan for the abnormal situation.
Examples of this type of situation include:
o Failure of an emergency shut-down valve or its associated control function
o Failure of a pipeline subsea isolation valve or its associated control function
o Loss of a well barrier such as a downhole safety valve
o Non-availability of a fire pump
o Non-availability of a totally enclosed motor propelled survival craft (TEMPSC)
o Loss of temporary refuge integrity
The document is designed to assist duty holders in developing company-specific procedures for the conduct and management of these types of risk assessment. It is, however, flexible enough to allow duty holders to verify the robustness of their existing procedures or to align what they already have.
Crucial in the development of the guidance was the involvement of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), with specialist inspectors reviewing drafts of the document and providing useful feedback.
Interestingly, the HSE has indicated that it will be using this guidance document as a basis for future inspections and will be looking for duty holders to be able to demonstrate alignment of their ORA approach with the industry guidance.
Operational risk assessment will remain a key safety management tool for the long term. Although it would be easy to associate this only with ageing installations, abnormal situations can occur on any age of installation and the ORA approach is therefore relevant across the industry.
Oil & Gas UK is now actively promoting the adoption of this guidance to its members in order to drive continuous improvement in the way operational risk assessments are managed on offshore installations.
Bob Lauder is health & safety policy manager at Oil & Gas UK
Guidance on the Conduct and Management of Operational Risk Assessment for UKCS Offshore Oil and Gas Operations is available as a free download at
http://www.oilandgasuk.co.uk/publications/viewpub.cfm?frmPubID=430
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