Application and Uses of Occupational Health Inspection Guidelines in Upstream Operations

Abstract

Abstract Occupational Health (OH) Inspection Guidelines for Remote Upstream Operations was initially developed by the parent company for inspection of remote upstream operations e.g. exploration rigs at a remote site. This OH Inspection Guideline had been previously presented at the Sixth SPE International Conference on Health, Safety and Environment in Venezuela. As a sequel to the presentation, this paper describes how the OH Inspection Guidelines was adopted by the affiliate company in Malaysia as the "best practice" OH checklists and its innovative applications and uses to other upstream operations activities. Prior to this adoption, the company was using a numerous Industrial Hygiene (IH) checklists each customized to the needs of different OH inspections and assessments. It is difficult to maintain so many IH checklists as required by the company Operations Integrity Management System (OIMS). For ease of maintenance of the OH checklists, we decided to adopt a single best practice OH checklist for all operations assessments and inspections. The OH Inspection Guidelines for Remote Upstream Operations was chosen as it was concise, yet comprehensive in OH and simple for field personnel to use. Under the OIMS, field personnel with limited OH knowledge are also expected to consider OH in conducting integrated safety, health and environment (SHE) inspection or assessments. The OH checklists was also promoted as a guide for non-OH personnel in inspection of construction & fabrication yards, drilling production rigs and offshore platforms. The OH checklists was also used by other non-OH field personnel in conducting their SHE assessments or inspections. The OH checklists were also used for conducting scenario based risk assessment by non-OH risk assessor; for periodic SHE inspections at contractor's facilities by SHE coordinators, for inspection of offshore catering facilities by company contract coordinators, and for self-inspection of their facilities by site personnel and contractors. The paper also compares the experiences in using the single OH checklists for all upstream operations versus having a number OH checklist for each type of upstream inspections.