To keep a licence to operate, companies need to maintain operational excellence while keeping costs down and complying with a growing list of regulatory health and safety requirements.

To do this, companies need to work with what they already have, albeit in a much more coordinated and integrated fashion.

Successful and stringent health and safety program underpin a company’s licence to operate. If these programs are to contribute to continued business success, companies need to cost-effectively connect their silos of information.

Most oil and gas companies can show they have the relevant health and safety information on file, but the challenge is to get it to the right people when needed.

Workers might be well aware of the procedures they should follow when they have the relevant manual in front of them, but what about when they are at work in the field?

To overcome this problem, one exploration and production company set up an integrated computer desktop – a process-oriented dashboard that combined mandatory online training, work permits and process information needed to execute all kinds of operational tasks, including hazardous activities.

This had a huge impact on the company’s health and safety program. It had been impractical for workers in the field to carry manuals and for certain tasks there was no such thing as on-the-job training.

The new system kept information up-to-date and became an integrated part of the company’s daily routine.

EAM ‘as-is’ isn’t enough

Enterprise-wide asset management is one of the most important tasks for oil and gas companies.

Operations managers must have an exact view of what assets they have, what state those assets are in and what actions are needed to deploy them to optimal effect.

For oil and gas firms, enterprise asset management (EAM) is a complex business due to the need to manage the mobility aspect (logistics of people and equipment at multiple sites), the operational aspect (optimised operational deployment and financial value) and the compliancy aspect (external and internal regulations on asset and work information).

These aspects are often managed out of their own individual silos of information.

Even the most efficient and comprehensive EAM systems are of little help when attempting to manage a comprehensive health and safety program if the data is not shared or made available across these silos and throughout the organisation.

Due to a history of mergers and acquisitions, many oil and gas companies have a multitude of processes and IT systems in place to record and store asset information, and to process information, authorisations, production information and work management data.

Although sometimes these systems are connected, they do not provide a single way of extracting consistent, actionable and timely information.

This is where new entrants have the greenfield benefits of using the services of experienced system integration companies that have already mapped out key information stores and processes.

Incumbents have no choice but to deal with their (acquired) safety and information landscape. But by adopting the latest business practices and technologies, companies can implement comprehensive health and safety programs using existing data and processes, while achieving operational efficiencies and a competitive advantage.

Knowledge management

Companies can make a start well before commissioning any new or overhauled facility. The key is to take an integrated approach to managing information (including tools and standards) from engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) consortia and owners/operators.

This will significantly reduce the total information management cost. It links safety practice to both asset management and maintenance processes much more quickly and easily than at present.

What is required is the exploitation of one of the most undervalued assets of any business – information and knowledge.

Existing silos of information can be connected to answer the necessary questions set out by health and safety requirements and regulations, as well as those questions posed by workers looking for an answer to their problems.

By bringing together relevant information in the context appropriate to the authorised production workers, oil and gas companies can demonstrate that they have the relevant information about safety procedures at their fingertips, and the knowledge about how this applies to different areas of the business in any given situation.

Information on the move

The ‘mobility aspect’ in health and safety management has become a key topic.

Technology is now available to track and trace the whereabouts of people (going off-shore, into the desert or around the facility) and critical or expensive equipment, and to collect real-time information on the status and performance of equipment.

A combination of satellite communication, wireless and fixed facility communication networks and radio frequency ID tags enables an engineer to know the status of, for example, a particular valve, including its maintenance history and the correct health and safety procedures associated with planned maintenance of the valve.

This leads to higher task efficiency, lower maintenance and fewer unplanned outages – all critical operational performance indicators.

Using the right processes and procedures, oil and gas companies can take that step beyond mere compliance and drive business value out of more accurate, timely and comprehensive data.