The oil & gas industry shows increased numbers of major incidents

2008-11-11

Mumbai: Statistics from DNV, a global company specializing in risk management, show that the number of major incidents in the oil and gas industry is increasing. In the last three years, more than 2050 major incidents have occurred in which close to 350 lives have been lost. Remi Eriksen, COO of DNV Energy, says that the negative trend can be turned by focusing more on risk based asset management and by learning from the success in managing occupational safety.

Over the last 15 years, the oil and gas industry has made dramatic improvements in occupational safety performance. In the same time frame however, there has not been the same degree of improvement in safety performance related to major accident hazard management.

Since 2005, DNV statistics show that the refining and petrochemical industries have seen more than 1800 major incidents with close to 300 people killed, while the upstream part of the energy sector has experienced 250 major incidents where 50 people have lost their lives. Significant production losses and increased insurance premiums have also resulted from these tragic events.

“The industry needs to focus more on the challenges from major accident hazards,” says COO Remi Eriksen.

Lessons need to be learnt from the success in managing occupational safety, and these key learnings need to be applied to process safety management. Measures that need to be taken include:

- Increased senior management attention to process safety management
- Process safety management integrated into existing management systems
- Greater integration between HSE and Asset Management functions
- The adoption of a barrier model approach to managing major accident potential, recognizing the integrated role of people, process and plant in providing effective barriers

DNV Global Risk Centre
DNV has set up a Global Risk Centre at Hyderabad to meet an increased demand for advanced risk management advice. The Risk Centre which will offer clients access to a wide range of risk management services. The primary focus areas for the Centre are Quantitative Risk Assessment, Performance Forecasting and Asset Integrity Management services.

DNV