This paper will provide a practical overview, based on the authors' field lifecycle experiences, to the consideration of Human Factors in hazard analyses to support the design and operation of oil and gas installations. In the development of oil and gas projects, human factors issues is informally addressed through the design development but recently the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement's (BSEE) promulgated the rule on Safety Environment Management Systems (SEMS), API RP 75, in 2010, which now formally recognizes human factor during design lifecycle.
In particular, for the element of hazard analysis the SEMS regulation states, "human factors should be considered in this analysis". Over the last 10–15 years, there have been industry papers that have discussed this topic at a high level, mostly about integration with Hazards and Operability Studies (HAZOPs). However, Oil & Gas Producers (OGP) Report No. 454, Human Factors Engineering in Projects (2011) provides appropriate guidance within the HAZOP framework to address human factors in hazard analysis.
Despite this history and guidance, it is evident that the lessons learned during the application of HFE in design continue to evolve with more engineering design. This paper discussed the OGP report and other guidance on Human Factors in hazard analysis along with practical lessons learned and challenges from the authors' experiences on major offshore design projects on a range of hazard analyses such as HAZOPs, Hazard Identification Studies (HAZIDs), Qualitative Risk Assessments (QRAs) and Escape, Evacuation and Rescue Analyses (EERAs), etc. The challenge continues in integrating more HFE during hazard and risk management activities in all engineering design activities. This paper has provided the impetus, guidance and momentum to address the human element in hazard analysis during the design of oil and gas facilities; this is just "the tip of the spear".
The project is to be the first fixed offshore drilling and production platform on the east Coast of Canada. Part of the agreement with the regulatory authorities for the development license was that a Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) study must be performed on the overall platform engineering design. Due to the number of design groups at several locations involved in various aspects of the platform design and to the difference in extent of design development at these locations, it was recognized that a method had to be developed to effectively manage and track the recommendations that would result from the HAZOP studies.
The management and tracking of the recommendations evolved around a commercially available HAZOP software package, the development of an interface program, and a database for tracking the recommendations. With the three software packages the project team was capable of handling and responding to the study teams' recommendations (approximately 900) from the two HAZOP studies over a 16 month period (primary and detailed, corresponding to the level of design development).
This paper outlines the process taken by the project teams from the development of the HAZOP procedures, to the closing out of the recommendations from the HAZOP sessions. It includes a description of the development of the interface software and the commercially available relational database used for the tracking system and a discussion of the lessons learned from the tracking of the recommendations.
Introduction
The project consists of a concrete Gravity Based Structure (GBS), a topsides consisting of five super modules and two drilling rigs, a crude loading system with offshore loading facilities, purpose-built shuttle tankers, and support vessels. This facility will be the first fixed offshore drilling and production platform to be located on the outer continental shelf of the Grand Banks on the east coast of Canada.
Part of the agreement with the regulatory authorities for the development license was that a Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) study must be performed on the platform engineering design. Extensive planning was performed during the conceptual engineering phase of the project to ensure quality and timeliness in the review of the design and in the resolution of the recommendations that were to be incorporated into the engineering design.
The planning of the sessions were based on the scheduled output of the Approved for Design (AFD) and Approved for Construction (AFC) Process and Instrument Drawings (P&IDs). This planning ensured that there would be sufficient time to investigate and incorporate any recommendations, resulting from the HAZOP sessions, into the P&IDs before the drawings were sent to the fabrication yards.
One of the first steps taken by the engineering management team was to appoint a HAZOP Coordinator, who has experienced in the coordination and planning of these studies.
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