Impact In Safety Culture Of Offshore Production Platforms By Brazilian Regulatory Audit Procedure After Safety Regulatory Landmark Based On a Management System

1. Description of material

This arcticle is the result of ongoing efforts of ANP to improve safety culture in Brazilian shelf, developing methods to measure the regulation gaps and impacts.  On this arcticle are described the method to evaluate companies adherence though 3^rd part audits and analyze the relationship between the result of this method and ANP’s leading performance indicators program, pointing the results.

 

2. Application/development

Despite efforts in the searching for alternative sources of energy, the continued growth in demand for petroleum natural gas is a reality (Harsem et al, 2011). The growth trend estimated of consumption of natural gas and oil for the next 25 years around the world shows an increase, respectively, 50%  and 20% (EIA, 2011).  Brazil has a special place in this role since last huge reservoirs founded in Brazilian continental shelf., especially in pre salt layers.

However, accidents such as the Piper Alpha platform in 1988 in the UK, the P-36 platform in Brazil and the Deepwater Horizon in the U.S. in 2010, negatively impacted the exploration and production of oil and gas offshore. The management failures resulting in a system of risk management poorly implemented or nonexistent in an company result in large losses (CCPS, 2007) and may impact long-term change in the strategy including the use of energy sources in a country (DHJIT, 2010).

After P-36, ANP has conducted a benchmarking program, discussion groups, public consultations to release  a new safety regulatory landmark based in a Safety Management System (Regulation ANP 43/2007 also called SGSO).

This based performance regulation requires that companies use tools to minimize accident occurrences stand out audit programs, preventive maintenance, incident investigation, risk analysis and monitoring of performance indicators, which when used in an integrated way with other practices, ensure the continuous improvement of processes through a system of risk management. ANP has been conducting its “3rd part” audits since 2009 to enforce companies to comply with its requirements in a movement that has changed the industry safety culture, improving best practices though companies aiming avoid accidents that can impact in the benefits of offshore production worldwide. 

In other hand, to maintain a well known level of risk of the ongoing regulated operations, other countries try to develop other kind of approaches related to performance indicators. Example of this, the project Trends in Risk Level (RNNP) developed by the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA), the Norway regulator of safety offshore, monitors since 1999 industry performance E & P by the use of indicators of safety performance with different approaches and since achieving significant results in preventing accidents (PSA, 2011) and KPI program of the United Kington Health and Safety Executive (HSE) ( HSE, 2007).

Following these good practices, ANP also has established a performance indicators program to be reported by oil companies related to Management Operational Safety System (SGSO), measuring the implementation of the seventeen (17) practices advocated by that regulation. Analyzing in a prevention standpoint of management practices, allowed typify the SGSO in dealing with accident prevention in three major groups, namely, Group 1 - Leadership, management and staff. Group 2 - Facilities and Technology Group 3 - Operational procedures. We searched sixty-seven platforms (67), seeking to propose (or identify) performance indicators related to prevention policy (Risk) for each of these major groups.

In the same way, the non conformances found in ANP's audits, categorized as shallow, medium, hard and critical were analyzed using indicators to reach companies' performance facing ANP's requirements.

This article aims to indicate a method to analyze the results of ANP audits between 2010 and 2012 and the relationship between this data and ANP’s performance leading indicators program related to Brazilian regulatory framework.  As result of this work, it will be possible to evaluate ANP audits impacts in safety culture and practices in Brazilian offshore industry.

 

3. Results, observations and conclusions

The proposed method can show a improve in general industry performance.  Related to this result, that are a increase of companies after the start of audit procedure of ANP.  Using leading indicators as input information of audits can improve audit’s efficiency.  In other hand, using the results of audits can require new indicators that are not required now.  The use of accident root causes in gap analysis of both showed methods can improve ANP knowledge about the level of safety of regulated operations.

 

4. Significance of Subject Matter

Disclosure Brazilian safety regulatory regime, show new methods to improve regulator’s procedures to avoid major accidents, discuss regulatory regimes and approaches, show methods to evaluate audits and regulatory impact and efficiency.

REFERENCES

DEEPWATER HORIZON INCIDENT JOINT INVESTIGATION (DHJIT). Marine Board of Investigation into Marine Casualty, Explosion, Fire, Pollution and Sinking of Mobile Offshore Drilling unit Deepwater Horizon, with the Loss of Life in the Gulf of Mexico, April 20-27, 2010. The U.S. Coast Guard / Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) Joint Investigation Team (2010).

HARSEM, Ø.; EIDE A.; HEEN, K.; Factors influencing future oil and gas prospects in Artic. (2011).

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF OIL AND GAS PRODUCERS (OGP) OGP, 2008. Asset Integrity - The Key to Managing Major Incident Risks, Report No. 415, (2008).

PETROLEUM SAFETY AUTHORITY NORWAY (PSA) Summary report 2010 - Norwegian Continental Shelf Trends in Risk Level in Petroleum Activity, (2011).

UNITED KINGDOM HEALTH AND SAFETY EXECUTIVE (HSE) Key Programme 3 Report, Asset Integrity Programme, HSE's Hazardous Installations Directorate. (2007)

UNITED KINGDOM HEALTH AND SAFETY EXECUTIVE (HSE). Developing process safety indicators: a step-by-step guide for chemical and major hazard industries, (2006).