An Analysis of Global Safety Trends in the Oil and Gas Industry - Impacts and Challenges in the Years Ahead

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines the safety trends influencing and shaping the oil and gas industry. From rising local content requirements to increasing shortage of skilled workers, rise in unconventional Oil and Gas to an increasing number of frontier oil producing countries, the growing role of Operational Excellence and the most common causes of incidents in the Oil and Gas sector, this paper will discuss facts, figures and case studies from around the world. The paper was developed using secondary research based on industry reports such as the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers' (IOGP) Annual Safety Performance Indicators report to provide an analysis of fatal incident rates, total recordable injury rate, and lost time injury frequency. The research also referred to country profiles published by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) including energy outlooks, analyses and projections. Information was culled from annual reports of international oil companies, technical papers published by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) as well as white papers by industry leaders, think tank groups and consulting firms. While the presentation offers a bird's eye view of the safety industry at large, it delves deeper into safety issues outlining the scope of the various challenges and how they influence Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) management. It highlights the importance of heeding lessons learned from catastrophic incidents as well as the adoption of industry best practices and integration of Operation Excellence into the core business operations to prevent disasters. Concerns on unconventional production and the need for regulatory frameworks in emerging countries indicate that regulatory bodies need to catch up and fast track research efforts to regulate the unprecedented growth and expansion of the industry. When taken together as a whole, the global safety trends indicate that investments on safety or the lack thereof has a huge impact on business continuity and sustainability. This paper was developed to give safety practitioners a better overview of the challenges, opportunities, new developments and trends shaping the global Oil and Gas industry.