Safety and Environmental Management

Introduction and commercial application Safety and the environment have become important elements of all parts of the field life cycle, and involve all of the technical and support functions in an oil company. The Piper Alpha disaster in the North Sea in 1988 has resulted in a major change in the approach to management of safety of world-wide oil and gas exploration and production activities. Companies recognise that good safety and environmental management make economic sense and are essential to guaranteeing long term presence in the industry. 

Guidelines for Certification to ISO 9001 - Health, Safety and Environmental Management Systems (and BS7750 -Environmental Management Systems) in the Chemical Industry (1992)... 

Some of the topics your safety and environmental management practices should address are as follows ... 

This chapter discusses overall safety analysis techniques lor evaluating production facilities, describes the concepts used to determine where safety shutdown sensors are required, and provides background and insight into the concept of a Safety and Environmental Management Program. 

American Petroleum Institute (API), RP 75. Recommended Practices for Development of a Safety and Environmental Management Program for Outer Continental Shelf (PCS) Operations and Facilities. API, Washington, D.C., 1993. 

Senior Consultant, Safety and Environmental Management Services, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. 

Over 80 per cent of member sites now operate health, safety and environmental management systems. Self assessment against the Association s systems is now something all of our members carry out. A small number of sites also have these systems verified by external organisations our aim is to increase the level of external verification.34... 

RP 75—Development of a Safety and Environmental Management Program for Offshore Operations and Facilities (SEMP)... 

The COS started with a focus on Gulf of Mexico SEMS (Safety and Environmental Management System) audits. Longer-term goals are to add activities such as determining the leading causes of incidents. 

The MMS s Safety and Environmental Management Program (SEMP) was developed in response to the 1990 finding of the National Research Council s Marine Board that MMS s prescriptive approach to regulating offshore operations had forced industry into a compliance mentality. The Marine Board found further that this compliance mentality was not conducive to effectively identify all the potential operational risks or developing comprehensive accident mitigation. As a result, the Marine Board recommended and MMS concurred that a more systematic approach to managing offshore operations was needed. 

The Safety and Environmental Management System (SEMS) requirements to do with offshore training are described and discussed in Table 7.1 (some formatting changes have been made). Additional information to do with offshore training is provided by the American Petroleum Institute (API) (2001). 

PSSRs are an integral part of all process safety management (PSM) regulations. In the United States, the PSSR requirements from Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are very similar. Offshore facilities are regulated by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) in their Safety and Environmental Management Systems (SEMS) rule. They use the term PSR. 

The operators [and contractors with Safety and Environmental Management Programs (SEMPs)] should establish and maintain an audit program and procedures for the periodic audit of the safety and environmental management program in order to determine if the program elements have been properly implemented and maintained and to provide information on the results of the audit to management... 

During each audit, at least 15% of the facilities operated, with a minimum of one facility, should be audited. The facilities included in the audit should not be the same as those included in the previous audit. When sufficient deficiencies are identified in the effectiveness of any safety and environmental management program elements, the test sample size shall be expanded for that program element. 

This approach is spelled out in the following statement from the Safety and Environmental Management Systems (SEMS) rule ... 

Transportation Research Board Special Report 309 Evaluating the Effectiveness of Offshore Safety and Environmental Management Systems, 2012. 

Will this redesign affect the process safety implementation and effectiveness of the facility process safety program or specifically any of its elements as follows not already covered in the Health, Safety, and Environmental Management System ... 

Jan Hayes has twenty-five years experience in safety and risk management. Her current activities cover academia, consnlting, and regulation. She holds a Senior Research Fellow appointment at the Anstralian National University where she is Program Leader for the social science research activities of the Energy Pipelines Co-operative Research Centre. Dr. Hayes is a member of the Advisory Board of the Australian National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority. 

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) conducts safety inspections of offehore oil and gas platforms for the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and has recently implemented safety and environmental management system (SEMS) requirements for the oil and gas industry. 

Federal Register. 2011a. Oil and Gas and Sulphur Operations in the Outer Continental Shelf—Revisions to Safety and Environmental Management Systems. Vol. 76, No. 178, Sept. 14, pp. 56683-56694. 

TRB. 2012. Special Report 309 Evaluating the Effectiveness of Offshore Safety and Environmental Management Systems. Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C. http //vww.trb.org/Publications/Blurbs/167249.aspx. 

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