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Implementation and Certification of an Integrated HSE Management System in E&P Activities

Luiz Molle Junior, Petróleo Brasileiro S/A – Petrobras, Brazil

A third part certified HSE management system was planned, implemented and certificated in Petrobras (Brazilian Oil Co.) upstream, in a variety environment such as the Amazon rain forest and a far offshore. The referred HSE management system, internally called SMS (Segurança, Meio Ambiente e Saúde), is based in a group of international and foreign regulations, one of them, specially dedicated to offshore activities: ISO 14001, BS-8800 and ISM Code. Started as a pilot plan in 1996 in the Amazon rain forest, the first results were used as a perfect school to the next steps, the last one concluded in May 2000, with a certification of Campos Basin E&P operations, both for offshore platforms and onshore support and logistic activities.Special attention was given to the strategy adopted by the Company, which has resulted in a great success and commitment from the top managers to contacting parties.

INTRODUCTION

Until 1996, Petrobras, as many other oil companies and corporations, had been facing a well known and persistent challenge: How to establish and maintain a good HSE management system, independent from the creator? And more; How to guarantee a common approach to activities conducted in locations such as the rain forest north Brazil, more than 3,000 Km from Rio de Janeiro head office? How to apply that for onshore/offshore activities in mature areas (Northeast Brazil) where more than 50 small platforms are in operation along with tens of small onshore fields? And still; |How to fit in relatively new frontiers (such as Santos and Campos Basin, located at the Southeast where giant fields and giant platform producing around 1MM bopd.At that time – 1995/1996 – debates around the approval of new international standards for Environmental Management Systems were taking place and Brazil was actively working, internally as well as abroad in that direction. Those debates resulted in the ISO 14000 standards, nowadays adopted all around the world.But, if ISO 14000 series could be useful, it was not enough to our goals... We needed other international standards, both for Safety and Health. We also needed to implement international regulations from IMO – The International Maritime Organization, since our greatest E&P activities are on offshore areas, using many drilling rigs, floating production platforms and FPSO[1]/FSUs[2].We also had to draw special attention to contracting parts and a remarkable difference of education and culture from one to another region of the country. Brazil has an area of 8.5 million Km 8,000 Km of coastline extension. The biggest rain forest in the world and around 170 million inhabitants.Following a huge research on literature and interviews, we decided to adopt BS 8800[3] guidelines – from UK – for Health and Safety, along with ISM Code – from IMO – for offshore units and activities.That option, aligned with the strategy for implementation and the top management commitment, was of the highest importance for the next steps, as we can see bellow.

STRATEGY

As explained before, the main goal was to establish a management system that is not dependent on personal points of view, which means, the system would not be affected by managers wishes or technician replacements. It was also essential that the system be:

  • consistent and aligned with national regulation and international standards

  • consistent with the recommended practices of the petroleum industry organizations

  • recognized and approved by employees, contracting parts and other stakeholders, such as policy makers, legislators, partners, competitors, suppliers, service companies, the media, NGOs and others

To achieve all these goals and still avoid the "not made in Brazil" syndrome, it was established that a third party with international recognition and experience would certify the system from then on.That was the most important decision taken during the whole process and the key for the success: interested parts would get a "prize" (the international certification) and the Company would get a consistent HSE management system.

PLANNING

The first decision was to hire a recognized international consultant company for the implementation. The same company would be working throughout the whole process, in order to guarantee a common approach for similar situations in all regional E&P areas around the country. It was also decided to implement a pilot plan due to certain special characteristics of the Company, such as:

  • the complexity of the program, to be implemented in seven regional E&P sections of the Company, almost at the same time;

  • people involved: more than 15,000 self employed and four times that many employees of contracting parts

  • the different environment of operations: from the rain forest to semi-arid isolated regions or, from populated regions to the far offshore areas;

  • the variety of operations and installations involved: small fields in mature areas, giant fields in new frontier offshore areas, onshore drilling rigs, seismic operations, shallow water fixed steel platforms, deep water activities, etc.

Special attention was given to computer network and support for legislation updates in the following main groups: international conventions, foreign flag state regulations – for certain offshore platforms – and national legislation in three levels; Federal, States and Municipal (local) regulation.Some software were specially developed, such as those for residue management, Company internal regulation control and risk inspection/internal auditing tracking and control. During this phase, many hours were spent on meetings with the consultant companies and general meetings and/or special training program for those who would be regionally leading the system implementation.Two major workshops were held before starting, aiming at establishing common goals and standardizing concepts. However, in spite of having common goals and concepts, regional teams were independent to solve their local situations, being encouraged to intensively use the Company expertise, know-how, computer network and, whenever necessary, external professional services.Some programs and materials were designed and provided by the central coordination, such as consultant contract, visual aids and support tape for training. A special logo was chosen in order to give a common identity, as shown bellow.

IMPLEMENTING

E&P operations in the Amazon area – including production fields in the middle of the forest, 2,000 Km from its branch, 1,500 employees and 6,000 contracting parties employees – were chosen as pilot plan.In that region, the process was initiated in Jan.1997 and was finished in Jan.1998, being certified by BVQI (Bureau Veritas Quality International), through ISO 14001 and BS 8800. ISM Code was not used, since there are no offshore activities under that regional organization.It is interesting to note that:

  • the biggest education training program was conducted by a NGO [1]

  • two thirds of the trainees were not Company employees and, most of them were illiterate.

In Jul.1997, seven months after launching in the Amazon region, the implementation started in other E&P areas of the Country.For that phase a central (national) coordination was created, based in Rio de Janeiro – where the Company’s head office is located– and regional teams, with leaders linked to the regional top manager. Sometimes, the Senior Executive Manager took himself the lead. In all, around 40 people – members of the central or regional coordination teams – were directly involved in the implementation of the system and a special indicator was created for step by step follow up, as shown in the example bellow.All the system was planned to be in place 18 months after start up. There was a little delay in some regions, which was not significant, compared to the scope of the entire process and the real goals achieved.In Campos basin – Southeast Brazil, 40,000 Km2, more than 6,000 employees – due to the complexity, the system was planned to be executed in two phases and was conducted as follow:

  • Phase I: only for drilling activities, to be implemented in 18 month – from Set.1997 to Dec.1998;

  • Phase II: considering all other offshore operations (around 40 production fixed and floating platforms, FPSOs, FSUs, monobuoys, etc.) and offshore/onshore support and logistic activities (people transportation by boat or helicopters, supply vessels, clearing house, pier operations, fire fighting and survival training, etc.) – between Jan.1999 and May.2000.

In Campos Basin, Santos Basin and all Petrobras offshore drilling activities, a certified system was implemented by considering ISO 14000, BS-8800 and ISM Code (see Special Note, bellow). In all other areas, due to their onshore characteristics, the system was certified considering ISO 14001 and BS-8800.Between Jan 1997 and April 2000 more than 1,800 consultant men-days, were used.Special Note: As the Campos Basin Phase II, has just finished (May 2000), the certificates have not been issued yet.

RESULTS

The system was planned and implemented in around 3 years and we did not expect to the best results earlier. Some indicators are hard to quantify since they don't have "metric or financial dimensions".However, most of the usual HSE indicators have been improving while the cost of accidents have been decreasing. Through identifying weak points, the system suggested establishing a set of new indicators. Consequently, better control of the results of the entire E&P process was achieved.By looking for continuous improvement – as required in ISO 14001 – comparison to benchmarking and other organizations, both internal and external, results will be automatically reached.

CONCLUSIONS

The choice of a third part certified HSE Management System, based on those international standards, seems to be the best option.There are many reasons to adopt such system and some of them, based on our experience, are listed bellow

  1. ISO 14.001 and BS 8800 can be merged in just one and be used as general guidelines for HSE Management System

  2. the system is not dependent on personal options or managers replacement;

  3. the only way to implement the system is through the involvement of all employees;

  4. the system must be designed to guarantee continuous improvement;

  5. the system is periodically audited, both internally and by third parties;

  6. the system is recognized as "good practices" by most of international organizations, such as The World Bank.

REFERENCES

  1. GAIA, The Expert Meeting on offshore oil and gas activities, 1997, The Netherlands

KEY PHRASES AND INDEXING

The following are keywords which apply to this paper:-Environment, Safety, Health, HSE management system, ISO, IMO, ISM Code, BS

GLOSSARY

  1. FPSO – Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel

  2. FSU – Floating Storage Unit

  3. BS-8800 – British Standard for Health and Safety management, similar to ISO 14001, for Environmental management

  4. SMS – HSE Management System

OTHER INFORMATION

  1. Contact details – Author: Luiz Molle Junior

  2. E-mail luizmolle@ep.petrobras.com.br

  3. Telephone: +55-21-534.2510