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1 Introduction and Themes of the Workshop
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From page 1... ... -- David Rempel, University of California, San Francisco At a workshop held January 23–24, 2018, in Houston, Texas, more than 100 experts in offshore oil and gas drilling, safety procedures, and government regulation gathered to discuss ways to prevent accidents in the offshore oil industry by applying understanding of the human factors involved in process safety and worker empowerment to reduce and mitigate hazards. As articulated by David Rempel, chair of the steering committee for the workshop and professor emeritus in the Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, focusing on human factors makes it possible to take advantage of the experience and knowledge of front-line workers. Read the entire page →
From page 2... ... Appendix B lists all workshop participants, and Appendix C provides biographical sketches of the steering committee members, speakers, and moderators. THE GULF RESEARCH PROGRAM AND SAFETY IN THE OFFSHORE OIL INDUSTRY The workshop, which was overseen by the National Academies' Board on Human-Systems Integration, was supported by the National Academies' Gulf Research Program, which was established in 2013 with the mission of catalyzing advances in science, practice, and capacity to generate long-term benefits for the Gulf of Mexico region and the nation. Read the entire page →
From page 3... ... Oskvig reported that the initiative began in 2015 and 2016 with several exploratory grants to look at effective education and training of workers in the offshore oil and gas industry and to advance safety culture and minimize risks in offshore oil and gas operations. In 2017, she continued, the initiative supported three consensus studies: one on loop current dynamics in the Gulf of Mexico,1 one on the use of oil spill dispersants in oil spill responses,2 and one on performance-based safety regulation.3 It also made grants to enhance understanding of systemic risk in the offshore oil and 1 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Read the entire page →
From page 4... ... The discussion in the second breakout session generated lists of challenges, barriers, and possible ways forward that were gathered by the workshop organizers. These lists are combined in Table 1-1 as a way of identifying the major issues discussed at the workshop and some of the ideas suggested by workshop participants for enhancing worker empowerment and safety in the offshore oil industry. Read the entire page →
From page 5... ... INTRODUCTION AND THEMES OF THE WORKSHOP 5 important lessons and potential next steps identified during sessions 6 and 7 of the workshop, a moderated "fishbowl panel" discussion of barriers to effective systems for taking action and reporting when hazards are observed, and how safety systems for taking action and reporting hazards can be improved; and during a session on the remaining challenges and unanswered questions that took place in a moderated town hall format with audience feedback. Read the entire page →
From page 6... ... 6 TABLE 1-1 Offshore Oil Industry Challenges, Barriers, and Possible Ways Forward to Enhance Worker Empowerment and Safety Challenges in Developing an Barriers in the Work Environment Offshore Workforce Empowered and Workplace Systems to to Establish and Maintain a Safe Empowering Workers to Establish Possible Ways Forward to Overcome Area Workplace and Maintain a Safe Workplace Challenges and Barriers Industry Structure • Fluctuating activity of the • Multiple workforce cultures, • Accountability business cycle different systems among • Arranging for the major proportion • Boom and bust industry companies, varying client of people on a rig to be with an • Contractor/subcontractor standards, and varying operator to create a majority culture workforce documentation • Better collaboration among • Existing Safety and • Asset transfers, including change companies Environmental Management of company ownership • Collaboration of industry leaders on Systems and other safety systems • Reliance on accelerated use of best practices contractors • Addressing the inherent pressures • Lack of clarity on roles and of production and safety and the responsibilities extremes of oil drilling • Hidden process problems • Wholesale change in the business • Companies that "get it" versus model or regulation "bad actors" Workforce • Workforce turnover • Minimal voice of workforce • Creating a system for motivation Structure • Maintaining the workforce • Logistics of crew scheduling • Ways of aggregating concerns and and retaining skilled people in • Embracing the concept of safety troubling observations, particularly downtime representatives and a safety when they come from different • Keeping up with training, committee teams on a platform that may all be building competency, and • Tendency to promote the best reflective of an issue reestablishing new crews on rigs technicians who may not be the • Addressing current cultures through • Inconsistent leadership, different best supervisors worker empowerment initiatives that types and effectiveness of • Flawed reward system are customizable and scalable leadership and management styles Read the entire page →
From page 7... ... • Multiple and inconsistent crews • Lack of experienced people to • Empowering workers from different • Differences in status of workers overcome problems companies to work together versus need to behave as equals • Diversity of internal stakeholders and types of employees on the rigs -- administrative, technical, cooks, repair, etc. Worker • Nepotism, favoritism • Lack of trust • Overcoming old-school attitudes Characteristics • Old-school mentality • Fear of repercussions for speaking • Training • Cowboy culture up • Whistle-blower protections • Complacency with status quo • Lack of job security or permission • Applications of the science of • Variability of buy-in from to speak teamwork operators and stakeholders • Different nationalities, languages, • Better selection processes • Lack of openness to new ideas forms of communication • Closed-minded attitudes, resistance to change Communication • Unclear reporting in the chain of • Lack of transparency • Creating and communicating the command • Lack of early input from workers value of worker empowerment • Poor knowledge transfer • Lack of consistent structure for • Open engagement sessions • Compartmentalization, training • Sharing lessons learned fragmentation, and • Difficulty of good communication • Developing and sharing a vision disconnectedness of risk-relevant (including input from stakeholders) Read the entire page →
From page 8... ... 8 TABLE 1-1 Continued Challenges in Developing an Barriers in the Work Environment Offshore Workforce Empowered and Workplace Systems to to Establish and Maintain a Safe Empowering Workers to Establish Possible Ways Forward to Overcome Area Workplace and Maintain a Safe Workplace Challenges and Barriers Industry Practices • No near-miss reporting • Lack of training and • Addressing the concern that neararound Safety • Inadequate incident reporting qualifications miss reporting will lead to citations • No learning from other • Lack of standardized • Simplifying feedback processes companies competencies • Requiring "skin in the game" • Drilling companies not embracing • Lack of focus on what is working • Improving corporate culture process safety • Lack of avenues to bring up • Learning from other sectors and from • Behavior-based safety prioritized issues other offshore regions over process safety • Inadequate incident investigation, • Creating a learning culture with a • Overcomplicated safety programs including of root causes feedback loop • Handling of incident • Enhancing competence -- for example, investigations, such as with a through an effective and competent blame approach regulator combined with worker • Expectation of heavy workloads empowerment and high activity levels • Achieving standardized competency • Sustainability verified by independent audits • Forging better partnerships with the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and the Coast Guard so that they add value, and inspectors are appropriately trained • Less fear of BSEE and more learning • Good practice guidelines • Following the rules and regulations • More consistent enforcement • Clarity and specificity on conducting audits Read the entire page →
From page 9... ... anything not done first in the • Changes in technology Gulf • Incorporating lessons of Macondo and other major incidents Lack of • Of empowerment • How to implement solutions Understanding • Of the current status of worker effectively empowerment • Risk awareness • Of the definition of empowered workers SOURCE: Participants in the second breakout session on day 1 of the workshop. Read the entire page →

From page 1...

... -- David Rempel, University of California, San Francisco At a workshop held January 23–24, 2018, in Houston, Texas, more than 100 experts in offshore oil and gas drilling, safety procedures, and government regulation gathered to discuss ways to prevent accidents in the offshore oil industry by applying understanding of the human factors involved in process safety and worker empowerment to reduce and mitigate hazards. As articulated by David Rempel, chair of the steering committee for the workshop and professor emeritus in the Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, focusing on human factors makes it possible to take advantage of the experience and knowledge of front-line workers.

Read the entire page →

From page 2...

... Appendix B lists all workshop participants, and Appendix C provides biographical sketches of the steering committee members, speakers, and moderators. THE GULF RESEARCH PROGRAM AND SAFETY IN THE OFFSHORE OIL INDUSTRY The workshop, which was overseen by the National Academies' Board on Human-Systems Integration, was supported by the National Academies' Gulf Research Program, which was established in 2013 with the mission of catalyzing advances in science, practice, and capacity to generate long-term benefits for the Gulf of Mexico region and the nation.

Read the entire page →

From page 3...

... Oskvig reported that the initiative began in 2015 and 2016 with several exploratory grants to look at effective education and training of workers in the offshore oil and gas industry and to advance safety culture and minimize risks in offshore oil and gas operations. In 2017, she continued, the initiative supported three consensus studies: one on loop current dynamics in the Gulf of Mexico,1 one on the use of oil spill dispersants in oil spill responses,2 and one on performance-based safety regulation.3 It also made grants to enhance understanding of systemic risk in the offshore oil and 1 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Read the entire page →

From page 4...

... The discussion in the second breakout session generated lists of challenges, barriers, and possible ways forward that were gathered by the workshop organizers. These lists are combined in Table 1-1 as a way of identifying the major issues discussed at the workshop and some of the ideas suggested by workshop participants for enhancing worker empowerment and safety in the offshore oil industry.

Read the entire page →

From page 5...

... INTRODUCTION AND THEMES OF THE WORKSHOP 5 important lessons and potential next steps identified during sessions 6 and 7 of the workshop, a moderated "fishbowl panel" discussion of barriers to effective systems for taking action and reporting when hazards are observed, and how safety systems for taking action and reporting hazards can be improved; and during a session on the remaining challenges and unanswered questions that took place in a moderated town hall format with audience feedback.

Read the entire page →

From page 6...

... 6 TABLE 1-1 Offshore Oil Industry Challenges, Barriers, and Possible Ways Forward to Enhance Worker Empowerment and Safety Challenges in Developing an Barriers in the Work Environment Offshore Workforce Empowered and Workplace Systems to to Establish and Maintain a Safe Empowering Workers to Establish Possible Ways Forward to Overcome Area Workplace and Maintain a Safe Workplace Challenges and Barriers Industry Structure • Fluctuating activity of the • Multiple workforce cultures, • Accountability business cycle different systems among • Arranging for the major proportion • Boom and bust industry companies, varying client of people on a rig to be with an • Contractor/subcontractor standards, and varying operator to create a majority culture workforce documentation • Better collaboration among • Existing Safety and • Asset transfers, including change companies Environmental Management of company ownership • Collaboration of industry leaders on Systems and other safety systems • Reliance on accelerated use of best practices contractors • Addressing the inherent pressures • Lack of clarity on roles and of production and safety and the responsibilities extremes of oil drilling • Hidden process problems • Wholesale change in the business • Companies that "get it" versus model or regulation "bad actors" Workforce • Workforce turnover • Minimal voice of workforce • Creating a system for motivation Structure • Maintaining the workforce • Logistics of crew scheduling • Ways of aggregating concerns and and retaining skilled people in • Embracing the concept of safety troubling observations, particularly downtime representatives and a safety when they come from different • Keeping up with training, committee teams on a platform that may all be building competency, and • Tendency to promote the best reflective of an issue reestablishing new crews on rigs technicians who may not be the • Addressing current cultures through • Inconsistent leadership, different best supervisors worker empowerment initiatives that types and effectiveness of • Flawed reward system are customizable and scalable leadership and management styles

Read the entire page →

From page 7...

... • Multiple and inconsistent crews • Lack of experienced people to • Empowering workers from different • Differences in status of workers overcome problems companies to work together versus need to behave as equals • Diversity of internal stakeholders and types of employees on the rigs -- administrative, technical, cooks, repair, etc. Worker • Nepotism, favoritism • Lack of trust • Overcoming old-school attitudes Characteristics • Old-school mentality • Fear of repercussions for speaking • Training • Cowboy culture up • Whistle-blower protections • Complacency with status quo • Lack of job security or permission • Applications of the science of • Variability of buy-in from to speak teamwork operators and stakeholders • Different nationalities, languages, • Better selection processes • Lack of openness to new ideas forms of communication • Closed-minded attitudes, resistance to change Communication • Unclear reporting in the chain of • Lack of transparency • Creating and communicating the command • Lack of early input from workers value of worker empowerment • Poor knowledge transfer • Lack of consistent structure for • Open engagement sessions • Compartmentalization, training • Sharing lessons learned fragmentation, and • Difficulty of good communication • Developing and sharing a vision disconnectedness of risk-relevant (including input from stakeholders)

Read the entire page →

From page 8...

... 8 TABLE 1-1 Continued Challenges in Developing an Barriers in the Work Environment Offshore Workforce Empowered and Workplace Systems to to Establish and Maintain a Safe Empowering Workers to Establish Possible Ways Forward to Overcome Area Workplace and Maintain a Safe Workplace Challenges and Barriers Industry Practices • No near-miss reporting • Lack of training and • Addressing the concern that neararound Safety • Inadequate incident reporting qualifications miss reporting will lead to citations • No learning from other • Lack of standardized • Simplifying feedback processes companies competencies • Requiring "skin in the game" • Drilling companies not embracing • Lack of focus on what is working • Improving corporate culture process safety • Lack of avenues to bring up • Learning from other sectors and from • Behavior-based safety prioritized issues other offshore regions over process safety • Inadequate incident investigation, • Creating a learning culture with a • Overcomplicated safety programs including of root causes feedback loop • Handling of incident • Enhancing competence -- for example, investigations, such as with a through an effective and competent blame approach regulator combined with worker • Expectation of heavy workloads empowerment and high activity levels • Achieving standardized competency • Sustainability verified by independent audits • Forging better partnerships with the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and the Coast Guard so that they add value, and inspectors are appropriately trained • Less fear of BSEE and more learning • Good practice guidelines • Following the rules and regulations • More consistent enforcement • Clarity and specificity on conducting audits

Read the entire page →

From page 9...

... anything not done first in the • Changes in technology Gulf • Incorporating lessons of Macondo and other major incidents Lack of • Of empowerment • How to implement solutions Understanding • Of the current status of worker effectively empowerment • Risk awareness • Of the definition of empowered workers SOURCE: Participants in the second breakout session on day 1 of the workshop.

Read the entire page →

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1 Introduction and Themes of the Workshop Pages 1-10

1 Introduction and Themes of the Workshop
Pages 1-10