"The possibility of fire, natural calamities like earthquake, landslides, storm or sabotage/terrorism all pose a main threat to any oilfield. Yet the safety systems represent less than two per cent of the total well investment," said Imke Cochran, exhibition manager, Intersec Middle East. He also said, "If safety issues are not considered during any of the phases, production is affected and employees could be injured."

The challenges to developing and maintaining a safe and secure environment must be seen in light of a rapidly expanding sector. A report by the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting CountriesOrganisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries says the Middle East and North Africa will have a 44 per cent share of the global crude supply market by 2030, compared to 35 per cent in 2004. It predicts that output from Saudi Arabia could double to 18 million bpd, while production in Iraq could go up to 8 million bpd. Output from the UAE and Kuwait is forecast to grow to around 5 million bpd each.

And speaking at an Opec seminar, Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali Al Naimi commented that the country would invest $70 billion in its oil and gas sector over the next five years. The kingdom's crude oil output capacity will be boosted to 12.5 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2009 through an investment of around $18 billion.

The government of Dubai has also announced it is developing a $1 billion liquid natural gas (LNG) storage unit. Envisioned as a massive infrastructure facility, Dubai LNG Storage Hub will be the first of its kind in the world and is expected to have a total storage capacity ranging from 40 to 65 billion cubic feet, according to the government.

The need for recovering oil and gas from deep-water wells will also continue to grow globally. And the need to lower costs and increase profitability in oilfields means there will be a greater need to find new ways of improving employee competence in health and safety practice.

With numerous tragedies occurring every year, health and safety on oil platforms is becoming increasingly important. Before ever setting foot on the platform, therefore, workers need a safe and effective method by which to train and to learn about the health and safety issues, and regulations, related to their job,

But the fragmented corporate structure of the energy sector does not help to achieve this. There are a large number of sub-contractors and health and safety bodies seeking ways to improve the level of health and safety across the industry.

There is also a growing issue around the capacity to train individuals and teams who are in different locations and different time zones. Bringing these teams together in one location is becoming more expensive and time consuming.

Companies that deal with such issues have even gone as far as developing simulators to counter these challenges.

A simulation consisting of a virtual oil platform has been designed and developed so that users can learn about health and safety by experimenting in a completely safe and risk-free environment. A major advantage of this approach is the ability to accurately simulate desired scenarios to enable the user to formulate strategies for dealing with each one.

This conceptualisation is an interactive, virtual simulation of an oil platform environment. It allows participants to experiment with the environment, either individually or as part of a group. The scenarios include realistic representations of hazardous events and environments.

The oil and gas industry also has job requirements that are very labour intensive, and if the employee is not well versed in the job design and the equipment and tools that are used, injuries and errors will occur. Blowouts and fires in the oilfield can also damage producing reservoirs, destroy equipment and take lives. They also pose a threat to the environment.

To address these issues, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (Adnoc)Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (Adnoc) has established a code of practice known as Occupational Health and Risk Management - Ergonomic Factors. This confirms that the company has recognised the importance of ergonomics as an integral component of environment, health and safety (EHS) policies and practices.

Adnoc shareholders are also demanding that guidelines be established to implement ergonomics in the workplace to bring the company in line with the top five per cent of the world's leading oil and gas companies, and to be recognised as a world-class organisation. During 2004, the first steps were taken to launch ergonomic awareness campaigns.

Intersec, which runs from January 21-23 in Dubai is a regional exhibition where exhibitors from all over the world show the latest technologies in VSD camera-based fire detection, fire fighting equipment, oil spill dispersant and new technologies to keep platform workers safe. The health and safety conference runs at the same time.

BY LUCIA DORE (Senior Correspondent)

© Khaleej Times 2006

 

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