Royal Dutch Shell's Health, Safety, and Environmental Plans Analysis

This thesis provides an in-depth analysis of the health, safety, and environmental (HSE) plans implemented by Royal Dutch Shell in its oil production facilities. It examines the robustness of these plans in mitigating risks and ensuring the well-being of employees and the environment. The study explores various aspects, including greenhouse gas emissions, gas flaring, environmental management theories, occupational injuries, and psychological well-being of oil rig workers. It also identifies gaps in HSE management and offers recommendations for improvement, aiming to enhance the company's operational level and safety culture. The research methodology involves a case study approach, data collection, and analysis to assess the effectiveness of Shell's HSE policies and practices.

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:

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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.

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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

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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

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5.1 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................65
5.2 Addressing the Objectives...................................................................................................66
5.3 Recommendations................................................................................................................67
5.4 Future Work.........................................................................................................................68
Reference List................................................................................................................................70
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................78

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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

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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

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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.

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1.4 The case
The topic of the thesis paper is related to Royal Dutch Shell and this topic ideal for this
thesis. The company has gone through organizational transformations with the help of
international centralization along with standardization, which generates very severe scenarios for
the universalism of the cultures. Furthermore, the company has look to consider a culturally and
independent safety measures and practices and these have been addressed as the golden rules
(Stephenson and Agnew 2016). The cultural diversity and globalisation that has been taken into
consideration by the organization looks to be increasingly suitable in order to have an
understanding of the universal tools in order to explain their impacts. This practice is the
essential goal of the thesis in order to have an understanding of the culture that is existent within
the organization.
The issue that is related to the company has been whether to have an understanding
whether the company is able to establish an organizational design that would be helpful in
mitigating the extent of accidents. The main issue has been creating a culture within the company
with the help of which the risks and the operational activities that have taken place within the
work environment can be mitigated (Gonzalez 2016). The paper would look to discover the
theories that would be taken into consideration with the help of which these difficult conditions
can be mitigated and accordingly the employees would be satisfied and reliability on the safety
and security measures can be undertaken.
The thesis even looks to create and understanding of the incorporation processes that is in
accordance to the safety of the company. The process with the help of which the process is
incorporated and presented is regarded to have implications on their impacts. The organizational
safety is looked upon to be safety that can be modified, transformed and impacted by the

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companies with the help of the organizational features and the characteristics. The organizational
features and the designs are additionally seen to have an impact on the process of making
decisions at every level of the companies that would lead to a safer process of decision making
and rise in the level of safety. It is seen that cultural uniformity is regarded as a homogenous
trend of the fundamental estimations which are shared by the management of the company which
functions unconsciously that consequently affects the decisions that are being undertaken.
1.5 Aims and Objectives of the Thesis
The essential goal of the thesis that would be explained in this report is to predict the
effectiveness of the environmental and health safety measures and policies that have been
implemented by one of the most renowned companies that is operational in the “oil and gas”
industry of United Kingdom and the company which has been taken into consideration is the
Royal Dutch Shell. The thesis would even stress on the approaches and the policies which may
be adopted additionally by the company for attaining an increased degree of protection within the
work place.
Objective of the Study
The thesis objective that is being undertaken in this work are explained as follows:
 To assess the safety and health policies of “Royal Dutch Shell” and their effects on the
functions within the stipulated timeframe which is 2006 to 2017;
 To evaluate the environmental strategies of “Royal Dutch Shell” and their impacts on the
operations within the stipulated time frame which is 2006 to 2017;
 To recognise the probable strategies for additional developments in the current “safety,
health and environmental” plans of “Royal Dutch Shell”;

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1.6 Research Questions
The thesis work that is being discussed currently looks to discover the answers and the
solutions and this is understood with the help of the research questions that have been given as
follows:
Q1. How efficient are safety and health processes and policies of Royal Dutch Shell in restricting
the injuries that are seen in the workplace for the employees?
Q2. How is Royal Dutch Shell managing their present environmental issues as an outcome of
their activities?
Q3. What policies and strategies can be incorporated by the managerial personnel for
undertaking additional developments in the current safety, health and environmental plans for
Royal Dutch Shell?
1.7 Outline of the Study
The entire thesis is framed in the outline that has been explained as follows:
Chapter 1: Introduction
This is known as the preliminary section of thesis and has been constructed in order to
highlight the basic and the fundamental ideas of the research paper so that the theme of the
overall thesis becomes easy for the readers to gain certain amount understanding. The objectives
and the aims of the thesis have been constructed in accordance to the research questions and in
this section.

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Chapter 2: Literature Review
It is properly understood that the current theories and concepts aids the processes for
completing the thesis paper. The thesis has assessed the numerous currently present academic
articles (that disclose the results of the work of the research that has been undertaken on this
specific area) and has disclosed an overview of the data that has been collected from the journals
and articles in this specific segment of the thesis.
Chapter 3: Research Methodology
The acceptance of the much exploited methodologies aids the procedure of undertaking
the research thesis, the recognition of the methods and processes for undertaking the data will
become simpler. The third segment of the thesis provides an overview into the research
processes that is being exploited in this specific thesis paper.
Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Interpretation
The next segment of the thesis has been undertaken for assessing the interpreting the
information that has been gathered during the process of the thesis paper.
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations
The last segment of the thesis would be used in order to summarize the results and the
discoveries of thesis, besides evaluating the accomplishment of the thesis (by associating the
discoveries with the goals of the thesis as explained in the first section).