Health, Safety and Environmental Plans for Royal Dutch Shell on Oil Production

Running head: HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PLANS FOR ROYAL DUTCH
SHELL ON OIL PRODUCTION
How robust are the health, safety and environmental plans for Royal Dutch Shell on the
production facilities of oil
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1
HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PLANS FOR ROYAL DUTCH SHELL ON
OIL PRODUCTION
Abstract
In the last few years, it is seen that environment, health and safety have been the most essential
priorities for the organizations that are operational in the “oil and gas industry” and they have the
aim of keeping their level of accidents at zero. Simultaneously, it is seen that the “oil and gas”
companies have been looking to develop their plans and policies related to the safety, health and
environment in order to reduce and mitigate the risks that are associated with this sector. The
thesis has even concentrated on the economic threats and social accountabilities as these have
been significant factors that encourage the plans and policies for the welfare of the employees as
well for the society.
This thesis therefore has been constructed in order to have certain idea about the health,
environment and health measures that have been undertaken by Royal Dutch Shell and thereby
understand their robustness. The results have indicated that there have been a mixed view with
respect to the results that have been obtained and recommendations gathered from the result can
be used by the company in order to enhance their operational level.

2
HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PLANS FOR ROYAL DUTCH SHELL ON
OIL PRODUCTION
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................5
1.1 Background of the Study.......................................................................................................5
1.2 Problem Statement.................................................................................................................6
1.3 Rationale of the Study...........................................................................................................7
1.4 The case.................................................................................................................................8
1.5 Aims and Objectives of the Study.........................................................................................9
1.6 Research Questions..............................................................................................................10
1.7 Outline of the Study.............................................................................................................10
Chapter 2: Literature Review.........................................................................................................12
2.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................12
2.2 Green House Gas Emissions................................................................................................12
2.3 What is the Term Gas Flaring?............................................................................................13
2.4 Gas Flaring and Power Plants contribution to Global Climate change...............................15
2.5 Environmental Management Theories.................................................................................17
2.6 Sustainable Development Concept......................................................................................18
2.7 Theoretical Framework........................................................................................................18
2.8 Occupational Injuries on the Oil Rigs.................................................................................20
2.9 Psychological Wellbeing of the labours of the oil rigs........................................................25
2.10 Environmental Impacts......................................................................................................26

3
HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PLANS FOR ROYAL DUTCH SHELL ON
OIL PRODUCTION
2.11 HSE Management in Royal Dutch Shell...........................................................................28
2.12 Gaps in HSE Management.................................................................................................30
2.13 Conclusion.........................................................................................................................31
Chapter 3: Research Methodology................................................................................................33
3.1 Method Outline....................................................................................................................33
3.2 Research Philosophy............................................................................................................33
3.3 Research Approach..............................................................................................................34
3.4 Study Location.....................................................................................................................35
3.5 Data Collection Technique..................................................................................................36
3.6 Case Background.................................................................................................................37
3.7 Analysis Technique.............................................................................................................38
3.8 Ethical Concern...................................................................................................................38
3.9 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................38
Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Discussion......................................................................................39
4.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................39
4.2 Results and Findings............................................................................................................39
Part A: Social and Safety Data..............................................................................................39
Part B:....................................................................................................................................50
4.3 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................64
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendation...............................................................................65

4
HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PLANS FOR ROYAL DUTCH SHELL ON
OIL PRODUCTION
5.1 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................65
5.2 Addressing the Objectives...................................................................................................66
5.3 Recommendations................................................................................................................67
5.4 Future Work.........................................................................................................................68
Reference List................................................................................................................................70
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................78

5
HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PLANS FOR ROYAL DUTCH SHELL ON
OIL PRODUCTION
Chapter 1: Introduction
The oil and gas sector is found to be a worldwide aspect and it can be determined by the
fact that that this industry is operational in all the corners and regions of the globe as the industry
is seen Australia to Canada, even in remote locations in the Arctic sector, the rainforests in the
tropical location and even in the temperate forests that are seen in Europe. This specific sector
has been one of the most significant sources with the help of which everyone gets to receive the
consumable energy, which is helpful in functioning the households and the industries all over the
globe and in the current time period has still maintained its rank to be the most prime foundation
of energy in the globe.
Khan and Hashemi (2017) cited that the administration of the safety and the health issues
is regarded to be one of the most significant aspects that the companies associated with the “oil
and gas” sector focuses on and researchers have the thought that most of the functional activities
of this industry with respect to the products that are created with the help of these operations are
related with serious amount of risks with regards to safety and health.
The key goal in accordance to which this thesis is being undertaken is to provide an
overview and a complete assessment of the research work that would look to evaluate the safety,
environment and health plans that have been undertaken by “Royal Dutch Shell”, which is one of
the renowned oil and gas companies of United Kingdom in order to extract and make use of the
production facilities of oil.
1.1 Background of the Study
Hennchen (2015) have addressed the fact that in the previous few years, the oil and gas
industry that is functioning globally has faced numerous kinds of dangerous and hazardous

6
HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PLANS FOR ROYAL DUTCH SHELL ON
OIL PRODUCTION
accidents within the working environment and this in most of the cases leads to injuries and
casualties. A study that was undertaken on this topic has explained that a fire that had taken place
in the “Paraguana Refinery Complex” had more than 151 injuries and this had been the world’s
third largest oil refinery and this result has been due to the ineffective and unsuitable policies
related to security and health as incorporated by the management of the refinery that had been
affected.
Tomlinson (2017) has explained the several causes that have been behind the injuries and
the casualties that has taken place because of the explosion that took place at “Deepwater
Horizon” drilling centre in the year 2010 and thereafter an outcome has been attained which
explains that most of the accidents that the gas and oil industry have faced in the recent history
could have been mitigated by the incorporation of specific and precise heath and securities
policies.
1.2 Problem Statement
The frequent and the daily operational functions of the oil and gas sector are looked upon
to create a massive amount of threat to the survival of the employees mainly because of the
severe conditions within which the employees perform and the explosive and hazardous
characteristics of the products that are manufactured by this sector. Therefore, there is no need to
say that in this scenario, the companies functioning in this genre are anticipated to have
knowledge about the significance of the requirements of health and safety that needs to be
implemented in the working atmosphere (Venugopal et al. 2016).
It has been disclosed that the large and the renowned oil and gas companies have stated
that they make use of and have incorporated effective safety, health and environmental safety

7
HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PLANS FOR ROYAL DUTCH SHELL ON
OIL PRODUCTION
policies and regulations within their operational sector, the statements and the reports disclosed
by “Gas Extraction Council” and “NORA Oil” have stated that the frequency of deaths due to
accidents in the gas and oil sector is seen to be eight times higher than that of the entire rate of
the all the other companies that are operating in the economy. In such situations, it became an
essentiality to assess the healthiness of the “safety, health and environmental” protection aspects
that have been implemented by the renowned and big firms that are functional in the domain of
oil and gas sector.
1.3 Rationale of the Study
It is seen that there have been several number of workplace injuries and accidents, which
have been faced by the employees of the several companies that are operational in the oil and gas
sector and this report has influenced several kinds of researches and works on this sector in the
last few years. There has been several numbers of researches that looked to recognise the
essential factors that are accountable for these kinds of hazardous incidents (Ahmad et al. 2017).
However, on the other hand, the research works have even been undertaken with the goal of
recognising the principle and the fundamental plans and strategies that could have been made use
in order to restrict these kinds of accidents.
Conversely, the researchers have been successful in understanding the fact that very few
and restricted information is available with respect to the safety plans and regulations that have
been used in the current time period by the renowned oil manufacturers of United Kingdom.
Therefore, it is seen that this specific sector has been selected in order to undertake a research
work, with the goal of fulfilling the gap that has been available with respect to this research other
than understanding and addressing the safety and health policies, which is being actually been
used to be a prominent participant in the “oil and gas” sector.