Following the 1973 oil crisis, the International Energy Agency (IEA) was founded to ensure the security and availability of energy. Today, the oil industry remains vulnerable to a wide range of risks, including natural disasters, geopolitical tensions, and operational incidents.
This article focuses on the operational risks category and the assessment process in the Oil and Gas sector. How can a risk assessment template improve risk monitoring in this industry?
Oil and gas (O&G) are expected to remain a major part of the global energy demand for the next decades. In 2019, O&G account for more than half (57.3%) of energy sources globally. Massive industries such as transportation and manufacturing depend directly on these products.
A risk assessment is a process of identifying potential hazards and analyzing the eventualities if a hazard occurs. This procedure consists of three steps:
It is common to conduct a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) in the oil and gas industry. It is a process that determines the potential impacts resulting from the interruption of time-sensitive or critical business processes.
Over the past three decades, risk assessment has evolved from a regulatory activity to a basic business requirement in the O&G industry. What started as good practice for professional associations has now evolved into insurance appraisals and standards for government certification bodies.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) maintains a listing of the most frequently cited standards in the Oil and Gas industry. Those standards can be accessed on the Frequently Cited OSHA Standards page.
Here is a selection of the most referenced ones:
ISO 20815: 2008 is the international standard for the petroleum, petrochemical, and natural gas industries on production assurance and reliability management. It introduces the concept of production assurance into systems and operations related to drilling, exploitation, processing, and transportation.
It provides processes and activities, requirements and guidelines for the systematic management, planning, execution, and effective use of production assurance and reliability techniques in this industry.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 489 workers in the oil and gas industry lost their lives on the job between 2013 and 2017 due to incidents related to safety and health risks in the workplace.
The O&G industry involves usage and exposure to different types of massive and hazardous equipment, product, and material. Here are the most frequent occupational hazards workers are exposed to:
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The greater the risk, the more effective and comprehensive the risk assessment process must be. Especially in the O&G industry, it is critical to recognize and control hazards to prevent injuries. This process reflects the effort of this industry to control fluctuations in risks during the operational phase.
Oil and gas plants infrastructure are complex and usually huge, besides there are a myriad of concurrent operations (SIMOPS) being performed on these sites daily. Therefore, field agents must not only manage operational risks but also dynamic and real-time risks.
The digital risk assessment template is a technological solution that allows users to perform intelligent and rapid assessments of those unforeseen risks.
Let’s explore the most valuable function of this tool:
A digital risk management system performs an ongoing automated assessment of predetermined risks based on the risk indicators monitored. When it comes to equipment maintenance, extending operation beyond equipment life span presents safety risks (ex: Oilfield equipment). If the operating time is exceeded, the system will send an early warning signal to the managers concerned.
When carrying out a dynamic or real-time risk assessment, the use of a digital form allows the field worker to automatically fill in each information on a digital application using a tablet, a smartphone, or a computer. The application already has various input data to select (identification of workers, work units, list of operations, description and risk category, level of exposure, prevention and protection measures, etc..). With this information and the databases of the system, the application calculates the level of risk and the effectiveness of the measures to facilitate the choice of mitigation actions.
The digital risk assessment system can calculate the degree of severity of the impacts of each risk and then prioritize them using a color code. A feature that allows managers to prioritize their preventive action plans accordingly.
The strength of this solution is the interconnection. All data is centralized in a platform that integrates data flows in real-time, i.e., all system failures, accidents, delays, etc. are immediately reported.
To be profitable, O&G industries depend not only on the availability, reliability, and maintainability of the equipment and materials they use but also on the continuity of their operation without major interruptions. Therefore, occupational accidents are heavily detrimental to this industry. Digital solutions deliver precision and optimum availability exceeding industry standards and regulations that ensure smooth and safe production.