This paper describes the environmental programme developed by Shell U.K. programme developed by Shell U.K. Exploration and Production (EXPRO) aiming at a continuous improvement of its environmental performance. The company operates a total of 33 platforms in the North Sea and has 3 land based gas treatment plants. The paper, therefore, relates mainly to the offshore environment. The programme is driven by adopting a goal setting policy. The plan was initiated mid 1990 when an inventory was made of all gaseous emissions, liquid effluents and solid waste discharges of EXPRO, s operations during 1989. This baseline was used to identify the largest waste streams and to set priorities for the subsequent improvement programme. Areas for improvement are: atmospheric emissions from venting, flaring and the use of Freons and Halons, the use of Oil Based Mud (OBM), produced water and the disposal of industrial waste. The programme has gained momentum and targets programme has gained momentum and targets have been set. Introduction To some extent the environmental performance of the upstream oil industry has performance of the upstream oil industry has been dominated by the accidental spillage of crude oil. In particular large oil spills resulting from tanker accidents in semi-pristine environmental areas have dominated the environmental headlines. Although these environmental accidents can have a significant effect on the company's financial performance, the impact on the environment is rather small. Large oil spills are rare, the impact is relatively short lived and in general without significant long lasting effects. Today most companies will put effort in preventing oil spills and make sure that preventing oil spills and make sure that they have contingency plans in place to tackle the incident whenever and wherever it might happen. An Environmental Management system has been in place in Shell EXPRO for some time concentrating on issues such as Environmental Audits, Environmental Impact Assessments and environmental training. More recently, however, it has become apparent that the environmental impact of a mature oil company is strongly related to its waste streams, and as such represents the on-going environmental impact. P. 55
For many years now, industrial production structures have started with raw materials and other inputs and finished with manufactured goods and waste products. These linear pathways are contributing to natural resource shortages, increased emissions into the atmosphere, pressure on water supplies, and problems with disposal of steadily accumulating solid wastes. Within the new science of industrial ecology, 'integrated biosystems', wherein the wastes and by-products of one firm are used as inputs for another firm, is a means of creating a 'waste loop'. In theory, this can achieve more 'service' from a given amount of natural resource use at the same time as lowering some input costs and environmental impacts. In Australia, a research team, which includes the authors, is attempting to design and implement such a system amongst a group of co-located firms in a rural town. This paper reports on our experience to date, with a view to alerting policy-makers to the potential benefits of such projects and also to some unexpected institutional constraints we have encountered. The constraints will need to be addressed before initiatives such as this can become commonplace.
This paper describes the design and implementation of an environmental training strategy in a major North Sea operating company. The training events were designed using in-house environmental and training advisers to include all levels of management, operational employees and contractors. As well as designing new courses, material was produced to introduce an environmental awareness produced to introduce an environmental awareness component into some existing courses. Introduction Environmental protection management is supported in industry by a number of activities. As in the management of other quality systems, the key elements in the maintenance of quality improvement are considered to be management commitment, comprehensive documentation, audit and training. This paper is concerned with the development of environmental training which is probably at present the least well developed of the present the least well developed of the environmental management activities. There have been few published accounts of the development of environmental training in industry. However, Frazier has described the planning of environmental training in an oil and gas production company aimed at ensuring employees production company aimed at ensuring employees were made aware of the need for legal compliance. The paper will describe the development and implementation of environmental training for Shell U.K. Exploration and Production (Shell Expro), a major North Sea operator. The scale of the operations to be covered included some 4500 employees, and depending upon activities, a similar number of contract personnel. The operations include in excess of 30 offshore structures and several mobile drilling units, gas terminals, oil and gas pipelines and onshore support bases. The operator pipelines and onshore support bases. The operator is actively developing several new fields, in many cases using new technology. The training system described was developed and is in the process of being implemented in order to meet the company environmental policy requirements while recognising the needs of the business. The North Sea offshore industry is currently faced with making major safety-related investments as well as developing low-cost solutions to enable exploitation of existing and new hydrocarbon reserves against an uncertain oil price. Concurrently, there has been unprecedented interest in protection of the North Sea environment and broad agreement that certain discharges should be reduced or prohibited. The paper starts by expanding on the background to the need for environmental training and describes the company structure and existing training regime which had to be taken into account. The strategy and principles adopted and some practical experience gained during implementation of the training programme are then described. Background Policy Policy P. 509
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