Oil and Gas, Technology and Humans Assessing the Human Factors of Technological Change

The oil and gas industry is going through a major technological shift. This is particularly true of the Norwegian continental shelf where new work processes are being implemented based on digital infrastructure and information technology. The term Integrated Operations (IO) has been applied to this set of new processes. It is defined by the Centre for Integrated Operations in the Petroleum Industry as 'work processes and technology to make smarter decisions and better execution, enabled by ubiquitous real time data, collaborative techniques and access to multiple expertise'. It's claimed that IO is efficient, optimises exploration, reduces costs and improves safety performance. However, the picture is not as clear-cut as it may appear. On the one hand, the new work processes do not prevent major accidents: IO-related factors have been identified in recent events such as the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. On the other hand, IO technology provides improved decision-making support (such as access to real-time data and expertise), which can reduce human and material losses and damage to the environment. Given these very different properties, it's vital that the industry has a detailed understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of IO, which this book sets out to do from a multidisciplinary point of view. It analyses Integrated Operations from the angles of statistics, management science, human factors and resilience engineering. These varied disciplines provide a multifaceted understanding of IO that better informs risk assessment practices, as well as explaining new techniques and methods and provides state-of-the-art guidance to risk assessment practitioners working in the oil and gas industry.

Contents: Introduction and overview, Eirik Albrechtsen and Denis Besnard; Section I Foundations: Integrated operations concepts and their impact on major accident prevention, Eirik Albrechtsen; Using human and organizational factors to handle the risk of a major accident in integrated operations, Siri Andersen; Assessing risks in systems operating in complex and dynamic environments, Tor Olav GrA,tan; Lessons learned and recommendations from section I, Denis Besnard and Eirik Albrechtsen. Section II Operations and Risk Assessment: On the usefulness of risk analysis in the light of Deepwater Horizon and Gullfaks C, JA,rn Vatn and Stein Haugen; Assessing the performance of human-machine interaction in edrilling operations, Denis Besnard; Measuring resilience in integrated planning, Kari Apneseth, Aud Marit Wahl and Erik Hollnagel; Resilient planning of modification projects in high risk systems: the implications of using the functional resonance analysis method for risk assessments, Camilla Knudsen Tveiten; Promoting safer decisions in future collaboration environments - mapping of information and knowledge onto a shared surface to improve onshore planner's hazard identification, Grete Rindahl, Ann Britt Skjerve, Sizarta Sarsha and Alf Ove Braseth; Lessons learned and recommendations from section II, Denis Besnard and Eirik Albrechtsen. Section III Risk Assessment of an IO Scenario from Different Perspectives: Risk assessment in practice: an integrated operations scenario from two different perspectives, Eirik Albrechtsen; Steps and principles for assessing and expressing major accident risk in an integrated operations setting, JA,rn Vatn; A resilience engineering approach to assess major accident risks, Erik Hollnagel; Assessing risk in integrated operations: it's about choice, Eirik Albrechtsen and Denis Besnard; Lessons learned and recommendations from section III, Denis Besnard and Eirik Albrechtsen; Managing risks in integrated operations: interdisciplinary ass

Eirik Albrechtsen is a senior Research Scientist at SINTEF safety research (Norway) and an Associate Adjunct Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). He has worked on several research projects on safety and IO and has written several scientific publications on the risk of major accident and IO. He holds a PhD in safety management from NTNU (2008). Denis Besnard is a Research Associate at Mines-ParisTech, France. He wrote several articles, book chapters and reports on the human contribution to system safety. He is also the scientific co-director of a French executive post-Master's degree on safety management. He holds a PhD in psychology from the University of Provence (1999).