Foredrag Task Force Zero Esbjerg 17 03 2010
"Health & Safety – Dilemmas and Challenges” by Aud Nistov, HSE Manager
The Norwegian Oil Industry Association, OLF
Sometimes excellent health & safety initiatives may lead to contradictory health & safety results and this talk will try to describe or illustrate different situations and examples were health & safety scenarios are associated with conflicting interests.
1. "Health & Safety – Dilemmas and Challenges”
Aud Nistov
HSE Manager
The Norwegian Oil Industry Association, OLF
The topic of today’s presentation is:
"Health & Safety – Dilemmas and Challenges”.
The Norwegian Oil Industry Association’s ambition is to be world
leading in the oil and gas industry for health, safety and the working
environment, based on a zero accident philosophy.
Addressing health, safety and the working environment issues and
identifying best practices throughout the value chain, add value to
the results on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS).
However, sometimes excellent health & safety initiatives may lead to
contradictory health & safety results and this talk will try to describe
or illustrate different situations and examples that I have experienced
were health & safety scenarios are associated with conflicting
interests.
I’ve divided my talk into four main sections; each one illustrating
different conflicts or dilemmas.
Firstly, what I want to do is give you some examples from drilling.
Secondly, I will look into some challenges related to helicopter
transport.
Thirdly, I will move on to helicopter underwater escape training.
And finally, I will try to sum up the main conclusions.
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2.
1.
Let’s us start with the first point which is related to drilling.
Approximately 90% of the chemicals supplied to the well site are
used during drilling operations, in particular in the formulation of
drilling fluids.
Current Oil and Gas industry initiatives aim to ensure that the
occupational health hazards of the chemicals used are minimised.
In addition, through the implementation of legislative directives such
as REACH there is also an increasing emphasis on reducing personal
exposure to chemical substances.
Drilling fluids are extensively used in the upstream oil and gas
industry.
During drilling operations, a large volume of drilling fluid is circulated
in an open or semi‐enclosed system, at elevated temperatures, with
agitation, potentially exposing workers to respiratory and dermal
contact.
As you are all familiar with, drilling fluids are a key requirement in the
vast majority of drilling operations for controlling down hole
pressures, removing drill cuttings from the hole, lubricating the bit,
and other critical functions to insure a safe and productive well.
There are two primary types of drilling fluids: water based fluids
(WBF) and non‐aqueous fluids (NAF).
It is common practice to use both water based and non‐aqueous
based drilling fluids when drilling various sections of the same well.
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4. The key words are; hydrocarbons, gases, vapours, elevated
temperatures, vapour pressure, boiling point of the base fluid, air etc.
Personnel may be exposed to drilling fluids either by inhaling aerosols
and vapours or by skin contact.
The highest potential for inhaling mist and vapour exists along the
flow line from the bell nipple to the solids‐control equipment (shale
shakers, desanders, desilters, centrifuges) and the fluid pits.
I would like to draw your attention to the Shaker house
High hydrocarbon mist and vapour exposure levels have been
reported in shale shaker house.
Shale shakers will mechanically generate mist that will contain both
light and heavier fractions of the drilling fluid components and this
effect increases with temperature.
The main exposure opportunities are:
• washing with high‐pressure guns using a hydrocarbon‐based
fluid as the washing medium. This operation generates mist in
the immediate working environment;
• cleaning and changing screens; and
• checking the shaker screens for wear.
At each stage of a drilling operation, if hazardous components of
drilling fluids have been identified with a risk of worker exposure, the
following hierarchy of controls should be considered:
• Elimination
• Substitution
• Engineering controls
• Administrative controls (hygiene measures, working hours,
awareness and training)
• Personal protective equipment.
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11. The results of these test showed that the new HH SeaAir survival suit
had acceptable water penetration both for hood up and for zip up
only.
• Noise protection
Why discuss such an apparent detail?
Isn’t the main focus passenger safety?
Why bother with some discomfort related to having the survival suit
zipped up and hood up while the main issue is to prevent water
penetration and hypothermia in case of a ditching ?
Well, the survival suit hood up means that passengers will be
protected with only one set of hearing protection (plugs) which
means that exposure to noise is considerable.
Through the annual report from the PSA, the Trends in Risk Level on
the Norwegian Continental Shelf, there has been detected an
increase in the incidence of new noise induced hearing losses in
addition to a registered escalation of existing injuries.
Therefore, in 2009 one of the major operators decided to deviate
from OLF’s recommendation for hood up on all helicopter flights
based on noise measurements to protect personnel from high noise
exposure.
Thus, there is a relatively high probability that helicopter
transportation of personnel may be a major contributor inducing
damages from noise every year within the oil industry.
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13. • PA systems in helicopters
The Civil Aviation Authority – Norway (Luftfartstilsynet) has focused
on the safety information given on board the helicopters by the pilots
over the personal address systems (PA‐systems), that is that this
information is being received by the passengers.
Information given on the PA systems is difficult to catch when hood is
up.
The information may also be challenging to pick up when utilizing
double hearing protection. However, the double hearing protection
equipment is usually connected to the PA systems in the helicopters.
OLF`s aviation experts therefore recommend to keep the survival suit
hood off during take off, landing and transportation.
As per today the OLFs recommendation is that passengers shall have
the survival suit hood up during helicopter departure and landing to
reduce the risk of hypothermia in the event of landing at sea.
However, OLF have received feedback from several oil companies
that want to remove the survival suit hood up requirement in order
to improve the receipt of messages over the PA communication
system and also first and foremost to avoid inducing noise damages.
All the professional experts within the Norwegian Oil Industry
Association, that is within health, industrial hygiene, aviation,
emergency preparedness and safety have come together and
decided on a conclusion:
The OLF recommendation for Hood up is withdrawn.
A new best practice with focus on noise protection should be
stablished.
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15. • Emergency situations that require underwater evacuation from
the helicopter and the need for breathing systems which help
prolong the time available for evacuation.
• Integration of equipment that contributes to facilitating the
search for missing persons at sea.
• The relevant climatic conditions pertaining to helicopter flights
and the work offshore on the Norwegian shelf.
The following specifications or equipment apply to integrated survival
suits used in our offshore activities.
Design, sizes and materials
The suit shall either be adapted to each individual user
or designed in a range of sizes that satisfies all users, that is both
female and male users of different sizes.
The suit design shall also take into account the difference in the body
shapes of females and males.
The material in the soles of the suit shoes
must provide a good grip on the surface
during all conditions that are relevant to the use of the suit.
The material used in the sealing around the head and wrists
shall be elastic and have a design that does not cause the user
discomfort or inhibits the flow of blood to tissue on
both sides of the seal.
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