Managing Environmental Incidents at Oil and Gas Facilities Before They Happen

Abstract

Abstract Environmental incidents at oil and gas facilities includes oil spills, releases and leaks of hydrocarbon and other hazardous materials, emissions and discharges exceeding allowable limits and community complaints. A survey by the Group office of a National Oil Company reveals that post environmental incidents management processes such as incident notification, reporting, investigation and follow-up actions are relatively well-established at its operating sites. These sites also have adequate oil spill preparedness which usually includes the establishment of oil spill contingency plan, the conduct of oil spill response exercises and the availability of oil spill response equipment and arrangement. The NOC in its pursuit for continual improvement in HSE risk management carried out a study to assess and review the level of proactice controls that needs to be in place to prevent or reduce environmental incidents. A strategy which touches on three aspects, viz. organisation, process and people has been developed with the aim to prevent and control environmental incidents at oil and gas facilities within the Group. This strategy was tested at two of the operating sites where the activities carried out include an environmental management process review, environmental hazard review and a capability building program to enhance the awareness, knowledge and skill of site personnel with respect to environmental incidents prevention and control. The effect of the effort was felt positively even at the early implementation stage when the HSE staff, the process operation engineers and maintenance engineers began to work together to review the environmental management process. The awareness training as well as the competency training to enhance the skill of environmental aspect identification and impact assessment proves to be effective in the prevention and control of environmental incidents at oil and gas facilities. The pilot project is now being promoted to other operating sites within the Group.