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Introduction and Themes of the Workshop
We are all here for the same reason. We want to prevent future offshore accidents, catastrophes, work fatalities, and disability.
—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. “Safety systems are used by operators, contractors, regulators, and all the staff,” he said. “We want to understand what elements of the safety systems are effective in involving workers in empowerment and safety.”
The offshore oil industry in the Gulf of Mexico differs from that in many other parts of the world, Rempel observed. It is largely not unionized, which means that workers can lack a structured and formalized channel for input into safety decisions. “That’s one of the things we want to talk about in this special setting of the Gulf of Mexico,” Rempel said. “How can we involve workers in safety in a way that encourages their participation?” Because of the structure and culture of the industry in the Gulf, he elaborated, workers can be concerned that they are going to lose their jobs if they speak up about safety. “How do we get through that concern in a setting where we want workers to be empowered?” he asked.
An effective safety climate and culture has many elements, Rempel continued, but he identified continuous improvement and a culture of learning as critical. “In that sense,” he said, “this meeting is all about learning and
improvement. We all want to get to zero injuries, zero catastrophes. How can we get there? We get there by sharing information and by continuously improving our systems.” He went on to emphasize that the workshop was “not about blame [but] about improving our systems and figuring out what we can learn from each other in that process.”
It is important to note that, unlike consensus studies conducted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, National Academies workshops do not produce recommendations based on the consensus of a committee of experts. Rather, they provide an opportunity to present information, express viewpoints, raise questions, and discuss issues. Thus, the recommendations cited in this proceedings are attributed to individual workshop participants and do not represent the views of the steering committee, the workshop participants as a whole, or the National Academies. Box 1-1 provides the statement of task for the workshop; the workshop agenda is included in Appendix A. 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. Kelly Oskvig, program officer with the program, noted that as part of civil penalties resulting from the Deepwater Horizon disaster, courts allocated some of the funds paid by BP following the accident to “community benefit.” The National Academies received $500 million of this funding for establishing the Gulf
Research Program to support grants, fellowships, and other activities over a 30-year period. The program’s activities are guided by its mission and by an advisory board of more than 20 experts.
Oskvig explained that the program has been directed to work in three areas—oil system safety, human health, and environmental resources—via three mechanisms: research and development, education and training, and environmental monitoring. This is a very broad mandate, she acknowledged, but she stated that the advisory board has helped the program focus its work on four initiatives: safer offshore energy systems, improving management of coastal resources, enhancing the health and resilience of coastal communities, and building capacity to address cross-boundary challenges.
Oskvig went on to explain that the initiative on safer offshore energy systems is seeking to foster minimization and management of risk to make offshore operations safer for people and the environment. She detailed its four objectives, the last three of which were all within the scope of the workshop:
- Characterize deepwater processes and ecosystems to better understand the offshore energy work environment.
- Support fundamental scientific and technological research to spur innovation aimed at reducing or managing risks associated with offshore energy systems.
- Develop and implement educational or training programs to promote a skilled and safety-oriented workforce.
- Encourage collaboration among industry, regulatory, and academic communities to advance understanding and communication about systemic risk in the offshore environment.
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
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1 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018). Understanding and Predicting the Gulf of Mexico Loop Current: Critical Gaps and Recommendations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
2 Details about the study in progress can be found at http://dels.nas.edu/Study-In-Progress/Evaluation-Chemical/DELS-OSB-16-01 [April 2018].
3 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018). Designing Safety Regulations for High-Hazard Industries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
gas environment. In 2018, Oskvig explained, in addition to supporting this workshop on process safety and worker empowerment, the initiative sponsored a Safer Gulf Summit and made grants to understand gulf-ocean systems.
Oskvig added that the Gulf Research Program’s primary rationale for funding a consensus study or workshop is that it either informs the program’s work or is of wide community value. “This workshop does both very well,” she said, supporting the safer offshore energy systems initiative by examining the intersection of humans, systems, and the environment and shedding light on unique areas in which the Gulf Research Program could make a difference in the complex landscape of offshore safety.
CHALLENGES, BARRIERS, AND POSSIBLE WAYS FORWARD
Two breakout sessions were held on the workshop’s first day, designed to take advantage of the wide-ranging representation of workshop participants. The first breakout session focused on elements of effective offshore worker empowerment for safety (i.e., What are the characteristics of a worker who is empowered to help establish and maintain a safe workplace? What are the characteristics of a workplace that empowers workers to establish and maintain a safe workplace?), while the second breakout session addressed barriers to achieving this goal and how those barriers might be overcome. 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.
ORGANIZATION OF THIS PROCEEDINGS
The organization of this proceedings is as follows. Chapter 2 summarizes the presentations that started each day of the workshop on two of the offshore oil and gas industry’s worst disasters: the Piper Alpha explosion (day 1) and the Deepwater Horizon blowout and explosion (day 2). Chapter 3 summarizes session 1 of the workshop on effective worker empowerment for offshore safety; Chapter 4, session 2, on the roles of different stakeholders; Chapter 5, session 3, on workplace barriers to effective worker empowerment; Chapter 6, session 4, on lessons from offshore operations in other regions; Chapter 7, session 5, on current systems for worker responses to unsafe conditions, worker interventions, and reporting; Chapter 8, session 8, on essential behavior and training elements for effective worker empowerment on safety. Finally, Chapter 9 summarizes
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.
TABLE 1-1 Offshore Oil Industry Challenges, Barriers, and Possible Ways Forward to Enhance Worker Empowerment and Safety
Area | Challenges in Developing an Offshore Workforce Empowered to Establish and Maintain a Safe Workplace | Barriers in the Work Environment and Workplace Systems to Empowering Workers to Establish and Maintain a Safe Workplace | Possible Ways Forward to Overcome Challenges and Barriers |
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Industry Structure |
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Workforce Structure |
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Worker Characteristics |
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Communication |
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Area | Challenges in Developing an Offshore Workforce Empowered to Establish and Maintain a Safe Workplace | Barriers in the Work Environment and Workplace Systems to Empowering Workers to Establish and Maintain a Safe Workplace | Possible Ways Forward to Overcome Challenges and Barriers |
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Industry Practices around Safety |
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Broader Drivers |
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Lack of Understanding |
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SOURCE: Participants in the second breakout session on day 1 of the workshop.
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