TOPICS OF INTEREST
SAFETY/HEALTH
Podcast: Discussion on COVID-19 with Johana Dunlop
An expert panel moderated by Johana Dunlop, SPE technical director for HSE and sustainability, covers a wide range of issues facing the double crisis of COVID-19 and historically low crude prices.
Coronavirus Outbreak Impacting Crude Demand Forecasts
Wood Mackenzie expects the ongoing outbreak and disruption to the world’s second largest economy to be a one-off event, yet it could remove at least 500,000 B/D of crude demand in the short term.
Oil and Gas UK Calls for Urgent Action on Carbon Capture and Storage
Rapid scale-up of CCUS projects is critical to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
California Oil Fields Are Not the State’s Biggest Methane Emitters
Methane emissions from California garbage dumps far surpass emissions from oil fields, according to a NASA survey.
Britain Imposes Moratorium on Hydraulic Fracturing
The decision comes 2 months after UK shale operator Cuadrilla Resources halted stimulation work at its Preston New Road site in Lancashire because of a magnitude 2.9 seismic event.
Study Advocates New Approach Toward Workplace Mental Health
This study incorporates previous learnings, as well as globally collected data, to develop a strategy that can be used to help implement an industry-specific mental health program.
Focus on Individual Decision Making Drives Safety Journey
This paper discusses ExxonMobil’s focus on the next phase of its safety journey through advancement of individual awareness and decision making to help drive breakthroughs in the operator’s vision of safety.
Real-Time Analytics Improves Process Safety in a Drilling-Contractor Operations Center
This paper explains how an ultradeepwater drilling contractor is applying real-time analytics and machine learning to leverage its real-time operations center to improve process safety and performance.
Technical Report Lays Out Path to Zero Harm and Beyond
Getting to Zero and Beyond: The Path Forward, sets the stage for continuing the discussion across the industry of the essential steps the industry must take to sustain zero harm.
Shift-Work Fatigue in the Petroleum Industry: A Proactive Countermeasure Using Light Cues
This paper presents a scientific method for reducing fatigue risks in oil and gas organizations that operate a slowly rotating shift schedule.
Evidence That a Burning Oil Well Can Sometimes Be the Best Option
Well fires look all consuming, but proving they burn all the oil without leaving a spill behind required the efforts of Boots Coots plus a rocket scientist and a lot of high powered computer equipment.
Official: Lack of Industry Knowledge Hampered EPA Study on Hydraulic Fracturing and Drinking Water
A professor who the EPA charged with reviewing its 2016 study on hydraulic fracturing’s possible drinking water impacts shared her observations on the flawed process that led to the agency’s final conclusion.
Previously Undetected Fracture-Induced Tremors Could Foreshadow Larger Quakes
Stanford geoscientists have found a way to detect thousands of tiny tremors around hydraulic fracturing operations that could serve as predictors of eventual larger earthquakes.
Robot Removes Operators From Extreme Environments
Robots have the potential to move human operators away from uncomfortable, potentially risky environments and into comfortable, safe control rooms.
Safety: It’s All About Us—The Human Factors Behind the Statistics
Adopting a robust set of Life-Saving Rules can reduce fatalities and lost-time injuries.
Induced Earthquakes in Oklahoma Dropping, But Not off the Radar
Top US seismic experts say they are keeping a watchful eye on ground shaking in the state as new concerns are raised in neighboring Texas.
Schlumberger: New Automated Hydraulic Fracturing Tech Trims Time and Workforce Requirements
A new spread of stimulation equipment from the world’s largest service company demonstrates the latest significant step to creating a more automated oilfield.
Passive-Fire-Protection Optimization in Offshore Topside Structures
Applying sufficient passive fire protection (PFP) on topside structural-steel members is critical. Simplified and conservative approaches are available to estimate the extent and amount of PFP necessary.
In-Service Hull Inspections for Avoiding Dry Docking Safely
Current methods for external inspection of floating assets on station use divers or remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), but these methods incur high safety, people-on-board (POB), and cost penalties. New methods to eliminate diving are being developed.
Assessing the Processes, Tools, and Value of Sharing and Learning From Offshore E&P Safety-Related Data
With the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement as a cochair of the steering committee, SPE held a 2-day summit in April to discuss the development and implementation of an industrywide safety-data sharing framework.
Plume Modeling Establishes Efficacy, Safety of Gas Extraction From Lake Kivu, Rwanda
A floating gas-extraction facility was constructed to extract gas-laden water, separate the CH4 and some of the CO2, and reinject the degassed water, thus increasing the safety of the lake and simultaneously providing CH4.
A New Reality for Training and Safety Technology
Virtual reality technology has become a powerful training tool for companies looking to recreate real-life, on-the-job oil industry scenarios.
Operational Risk: Stepping Beyond Bow Ties
This paper presents a multiple-physical-barrier (MPB) approach to operational risk management by focusing on physical barriers and success paths that enable each barrier to perform its safety functions.
The Influence of Communication About Safety Measures on Risk-Taking Behavior
Risk-taking behavior is an important contributing human factor to incidents and is notoriously difficult to influence. This study examined how safety measures and uncertainty affected the risk-taking behavior of participants.
Service Company Explores Pathways To Make Driving Inherently Safer
This paper explores whether factors other than the driver can be influenced to increase overall driving safety. This is an application of the risk management approach of using fundamental design and layout to reducing the likelihood and severity of incidents.
A Novel Integrity-Assurance Approach for Qualification of Subsea Technologies
The deepwater industry uses technology qualification (TQ) as a tool to determine which safety barriers are needed, and what level of testing is required. Even without failure data from the field, a method has been developed to quantify the integrity of various components.
New Optical Gas-Imaging Technology for Quantifying Fugitive-Emission Rates
Optical gas-imaging is effective for visual identification of volatile organic compound (VOC) leaks. But it doesn't currently quantify the leak rate as required by regulations. This paper discusses work aimed at adding that quantification.
How the Petroleum Industry Can Learn From the Ebola Crisis of 2014
This paper reviews the Ebola outbreak from the viewpoint of an onshore and offshore petroleum operator, providing insight into the real threats the outbreak, and providing lessons learnt for industry operations elsewhere.
Creating a Safety Culture: What It Is and How To Get There
Safety culture can be distilled into nine characteristics predictive of safety outcomes. To improve safety performance and create lasting change in organizational culture, leaders can focus on developing 10 safety-specific leadership capabilities.
A New Reality for Training and Safety Technology
At OTC in Houston this year many exhibitors used virtual reality (VR) headsets to engage with attendees. The unique visual and immersive qualities that make these devices great marketing tools are also what some in the oil and gas industry say make them powerful training tools.
BOPs Become the Focus of Data-Driven Scrutiny
Well control is built around huge steel machines, but the future of the business is digital. Data have become a critical asset as operators and service companies work to increase the safety and reliability of their products and operations.
Guest Editorial: Changing How We Manage HSE: Getting to Zero
For the more than 7 billion people on our planet, every measure of quality of life, from gross domestic product per capita and infant mortality, to education levels and access to clean water, is correlated to the consumption of modern fuels, including oil and gas.
From Air to Sea: Introducing Crew Resource Management to the Offshore Industry
Despite a number of recent and high-profile jetliner crashes, commercial aviation has entered into a new era of safety. There is a lot the oil and gas industry can learn from their success.
Management: Getting to Grips with Human Factors in Drilling Operations
Looking after the human factors in daily operations is good business because it increases employee safety and improves work performance.
A Plant Simulator To Enhance the Process Safety of Industrial Operators
The paper presents and discusses a solution for immersive training of industrial operators that allows experiencing the multifaceted scenarios of real-plant operations.
Program Ranks Musculoskeletal Risk of Operating Valves in Process Industries
Every process plant presents a high number and diversity of valves that control the flow of feedstock, products, and service liquids and gases.
Group To Examine Potential Health Effects From Producing Unconventional Resources
Unconventional resources offer many substantial benefits, yet the rapid increase in production of these resources using hydraulic fracturing has generated scrutiny by some policymakers and advocates who cite health concerns.
Data From Above: The Advantages of Unmanned Aircraft
Unmanned aircraft are finding their place in the oil and gas industry by providing aerial geologic modeling to address reservoir-related challenges and making inspections safer.
Experiments on Large-Scale Fires Reveal Benefit of Greater Water Deluge
A series of 56 large-scale fire experiments in the range of 40–120 MW has been carried out in a generic offshore module.
Management System Approach Aims To Meet Human Rights Expectations
A range of external expectations exists for companies to demonstrate how they respect human rights, including having business processes in place to prevent or mitigate human rights issues caused by the company’s projects or operations.
Company’s Revised Approach to Safety Strives To Make Standards More Natural
ExxonMobil has traditionally used industry standards driven by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to classify safety events on the basis of the treatment or restrictions provided. However, this treatment-based approach has limitations.
Safety-Management Leading Indicator Results in Unintended Consequences
A metric based on a corrective-action-classification system initially appeared to be a valuable leading indicator for management purposes.
An Integrated Noise-Protection Program in Angola
An epidemiological study was developed to take into account specific employee habits while measuring the possible prevalence of hearing problems arising from earlier occupational exposure.
Legislation, Commerce, and Ethics Drive Design of Quieter Facilities in Australia
Legislation, economics, and ethics are major drivers behind the adoption of engineering noise controls during offshore-facility design in Australia.
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