Introduction to occupational health and safety

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Added on 2021-04-24

Introduction to occupational health and safety

Added on 2021-04-24

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Running head: Health and Safety 1HEALTH AND SAFETYStudent NameInstitution

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Health and Safety 2Table of Contents1.Introduction.........................................................................................................................................22.Analysis...............................................................................................................................................22.1 Business case for extending the life of ageing installations in the North Sea.....................................22.2 Risk management and Asset integrity of North Sea installations.......................................................42.3 Developments in knowledge and/or technology advancement...........................................................62.4 Changes in the organization and skills/knowledge............................................................................72.5 Statistics relating to ALE for example from the HSE, Oil and Gas UK............................................92.6 Legislation relating to ALE in the North Sea – Health and Safety Executive/Energy Division (HSE ED)........................................................................................................................................................103.Rebuttal.............................................................................................................................................124.Conclusion.........................................................................................................................................135.References.........................................................................................................................................13

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Health and Safety 31.IntroductionMany oil and gas installations in UK’s North Sea oil reserves have remained in operationbeyond operation life. Operation of ageing installation presents numerous challenges to healthand safety of both staffs and environment. The need to extend the life of ageing assets is subjectto provisions of guidelines developed by Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The phenomenonhas lead to enactment legislation and standards that assist in installation and maintenance ofvarious assets in the North Sea. Some of the reasons for extended life of assets includedecommissioning cost, the time it takes to decommission assets and the cost to dismantle theageing assets. Statistics show the cost of maintaining ageing assets and cost attributed to bothaccidents and repairs of these assets. The following report provides analysis of Ageing and LifeExtension issues in the oil and gas reserves of UK’s North Sea (Rademaeker et al 2014, pp 280-291). 2.Analysis2.1 Business case for extending the life of ageing installations in the North Sea There are very many reasons for extending the life ageing installations in companiesinvolved oil production in the North Sea. Firstly, collapse in the regional oil price has causedmany companies to re-evaluate the economic viability of changing ageing installations. Theproblem of oil prices is also making oil unprofitable in the contemporary market especially forthose small companies operating within these regions. In addition, Years of higher-than-break-even oil prices are causing companies to implement ageing installations strategies. These

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Health and Safety 4changes in oil prices have also caused job losses leading to approximately 124000unemployment in the sector (HSE 2002, pp 028).Secondly, the scale of the job to replace the ageing installations is challenging since thenumber of installations is more than1357 offshore installations in OSPAR maritime area. It isestimated that 545 of these installations are fixed steel. More than 80% of these offshoreinstallations according to HSE IS9 (2004),should be out of service due to ageing by 2030. Theoverall cost of replacing or decommissioning of ageing installations is estimated to exceed £47billion. The operation life is expected to go beyond this field life since the complexity ofhandling these installations present the primary challenge (Milazzo & Aven 2012, pp 183-192).Thirdly, decommissioning of ageing installations in the North Sea presents over time andover budget. Though ageing installation present health and safety challenge the decommissioningof these installations takes overtime of up to 30 years. For instance, decommissioning of someinstallations in the North Sea that were supposed to cost 10-15% of the construction budgetexceeded the cost by 40% of the budget. The length the time that decommissioning of ageinginstallation takes has proved that the task involves is much more than the estimated time frame(HSE 2008, no.044).Thirdly, replacing ageing installations is quite challenging for smaller companiesoperating within the region. Replacing ageing installations cause collapse of more than 100companies in the United States of America. The cost of replacing and decommissioning ageinginstallations that are also coupled with the high expert requirement is quite tricky for youngstruggling companies. For instance, Tuscan Energy in 2005 was saved from the cost to requireddecommission companies within UKCS and NCS due to its insolvency. Moreover, the cost of

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