Managing SEMP On-Line
Authors: Watson L.E. , Luppens J.C. , Maitland Peter 
Published: December 2007

The North America Production Division of Phillips Petroleum Company has teamed with M&H Enterprises to provide its operators, technicians, engineers and management on-line access and control of the change process and the extensive documentation involved in compliance with API RP 75 Safety and Environmental Management Program (SEMP). The new system provides access for all of Phillips' manned Gulf of Mexico facilities to the Lafayette (LA) based office and its comprehensive database with drawings, operating procedures, training materials and records.

M&H Enterprises, a Houston based firm that specializes in regulatory compliance consulting and software solutions, developed the WinPSM/SEMPTM software and customized it to meet Phillips' SEMP policies and software standards. WinPSM/SEMP is a Windows based client server application. which features the use of a state of the art document management software technology. This system addresses all the elements of SEMP with the all important Management of Change module as a cornerstone component to the program.

This paper presents the benefits of an on-line system over the traditional paper based system to control documentation resulting from SEMP compliance. It will demonstrate how this solution has resulted in a streamlined management of change process, safety training has become more current, and safety related procedures have become more accessible to the employees and better documented for compliance reporting purposes.

The paper will point out the effectiveness of integrating all elements of SEMP into a single software product, taking advantage of familiar workplace environments to speed up the learning curve for field personnel. It will also address the flexibility of using such a system to include other on-line applications which have similar database accessibility requirements between the field and the supporting office.

Introduction

The Lafayette Profit Center of Phillips Petroleum Company operates a number of oil and gas production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico and south Louisiana. Some of these facilities are subject to regulatory compliance under OSHA's Process Safety Management (PSM). In addition. Phillips has adopted a policy to comply with API RP 75, Safety and Environment Management Program (SEMP), for all of its offshore facilities. Phillips' policies and programs place a particular emphasis on providing staff with information which is current, accurate and readily accessible. The cornerstone of this philosophy is Management of Change (MOC). This priority requires full consideration of the impact that change may have on the underlying tenet of safe and troublefree operations. Furthermore, the data and output of a compliance management system must be readily available to a multitude of users (operators, technicians, engineers, compliance staff and management), located throughout Phillips' operations, particularly in the immediate area of the Gulf of Mexico. In practice, the existing paper-based systems no longer met these criteria. A search began to look for an integrated, electronic solution which would take advantage of commercially available software. Custom features and functions would be designed around these, to meet unique needs and provide integration with prior investments in hardware and software.

An existing software solution, M&H Enterprises' WinPSMTM, designed specifically for PSM compliance in the oil and gas industry, offered a solid starting point.

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