Analysis of Occupational Hazards and Lateral Environmental Pollution in the Construction Phase of Yadavaran Oil Field

Abstract

Occupational hazards in the petroleum industry have always been among the major problems in the various phases of construction and installation, which sometimes cause environmental damage. The present study aims to evaluate the risk of occupational accidents in the petroleum industry in the construction phase (2010-2015) in one of the largest oil fields in Iran, namely the Yadavaran Oil Field in Khuzestan Province, and also discuss the lateral environmental damage. The environmental damage such as air, soil, and water pollution caused by occupational accidents were identified, and the distribution and type of activity were analyzed. For this purpose, the Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) model was applied to evaluate the risk of occupational accidents. A total of 47 occupational accidents were identified during the 6-year construction phase of this oil field. The data was collected and underwent statistical analysis and risk assessment based on the location and hazards clustering, which is the main novelty of the article. According to the results, the average number of risk priorities for the observed occupational accidents was 212. Also, the occupational accidents were categorized by the type of accidents, and several corrective measures suitable for each type of accident were suggested. Based on these suggestions, the corrective Risk Priority Number (RPN) was expected to be about 133.2. As a result of these corrections, the risk reduction was expected to be 37% of the initial value. The changes introduced were low-cost, continuous, and periodic measures with positive effects on this oil field.