bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The First Year's Operation of the Nimr Water Treatment Plant in Oman-Sustainable Produced Water Management using wetlands
Authors: Breuer R. , Headley T. R. , Thaker Y. I. , Al Sharji Badar 
Published: September 2012

Abstract
One of the largest industrial constructed wetland systems in the world was commissioned at the start of 2011 to sustainably manage more than 45,000 m3/day of produced water from the Nimr oilfields in Oman. This natural treatment system consists of a passive oil-water separator, 234 hectares of surface flow wetlands and 300 hectares of evaporation ponds and has been instrumental in reducing the amount of hydrocarbon polluted produced water being disposed to the deep well aquifers. The Nimr Water Treatment Plant (Nimr WTP), being a gravity flow system uses minimal fossil fuel for its operation and therefore results in an enormous saving in energy consumption compared to the conventional, energy-intensive disposal method of pumping the water more than 1.5 km below ground into deep aquifers under high pressure. Maximizing the use of locally available and naturally occurring materials for construction, treating and reusing oil contaminated soil from the oilfields and minimizing electricity consumption has decreased the carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts of the oilfield, thus helping to protect people and the environment. The average operational power consumption for running the NWTP measured for 2011 was only 0.06 kWh per m3 of produced water treated, compared to 3.6 – 5.5 kWh/m3 for the deep well disposal that has traditionally been used. This equates to an energy saving of 98.3 – 98.9 % for managing the produced water and represents a huge saving in energy costs, fossil fuel consumption and subsequent green-house gas emissions making the project not only environmentally friendly but also economically successful for the oil producer. The reduction in CO2 emissions in 2011 was between 40,700 and 62,600 tons. The wetlands and ponds also provide a valuable habitat for migratory birds, with close to 100 different bird species having been identified at the site to date. During 2012, an extension to the wetland system (additional 120 hectares) is being constructed to increase the capacity of the plant to 95,000 m3/day. As part of this extension, approximately 167,000 m3 of oil contaminated soil has been biologically treated and reused as soil substrate in the wetland, providing additional environmental benefits. This paper discusses the details of the plant performance, data analysis and the challenges experienced in the first year operation of the Nimr WTP.
Project Management — Engaging the Hearts and Minds to "Protect Tomorrow. Today."
Authors: Tyler David C. , Callon Douglas R. , Boog Lillian , Wood Ben 
Published: September 2012

Abstract
ExxonMobil Development Company (EMDC) is in the project management business. The company currently manages a portfolio of more than 120 projects on five continents. Today's projects are often progressed in sensitive environments, against a backdrop of complex regulatory frameworks and fragile socioeconomic settings. The manner in which these risks are identified, assessed, and managed can significantly impact the success of a project and, importantly, its longer-term operations.
Engaging the hearts and minds of our project teams early on is the key to successfully managing these stakeholder risks. Just a few of EMDC's strategies described in this paper include: Leadership: Established a Socioeconomic Center of Excellence for all Upstream activitiesProcess: Formalized a screening process during concept selection focused on environmental and socioeconomic alternativesCollaboration: Created an online "suitcase" for project teams with key guidance, tools, and project examplesLearning: Developed a flexible training framework for project management using targeted "leadership briefings"
Our strategies can help small and large project operators and contractors engage the hearts and minds of their own people, enabling them to tackle the evolving challenges of key stakeholder risks. The strategies apply in developed and developing countries alike, at either greenfield or brownfield locations, and under any fiscal terms.
The journey is ongoing but EMDC is seeing progress in managing this important aspect of our global business. The success of our work on Sakhalin Island has led to new resource opportunities across Russia. The Point Thomson Project on Alaska's North Slope has successfully deployed new practices and technologies to protect the environment. And while the world-class LNG project in PNG has been challenging on several fronts, these "heart and mind" strategies are steadily taking root.
Building a Culture of Responsible Environmental Performance: EMFORCE
Authors: Shield Helga 
Published: September 2012

Abstract
How do you ingrain a culture of responsible environmental performance? First rolled out in June 2005, EMFORCE (ExxonMobil Fundamentals of Regulatory Compliance and Environment) is an in-house course that equips employees and contractor leaders with skills, knowledge and tools to lead the workforce in environmentally responsible day-to-day operations and project planning. To date, this two day course has been delivered to twenty three classes totaling over 400 workers. Typical class attendees include Steam Engineers, Operations Technical Facilities Managers, Plant Foremen, Field Foremen, Maintenance Planning Leaders, Operations Superintendents, Plant and Field Operations Specialists, Project Engineers and Advisors for whom it is required training.
EMFORCE provides a foundation of knowledge from which to begin, and positions environmental responsibility as a core value. What it means for each individual to further the corporate goal of "Protect Tomorrow. Today." is explored, and the expectation that all workers can and must be Environment Leaders is woven throughout. The course culminates with a call to leadership, and the public sharing of each participant's Personal Action Plan with senior management. The ongoing sharing of lessons learned and reinforcing of messaging continues outside the course through the use of "EnviroAlert" bulletins to operating and project groups on a regular basis.
EMFORCE is contributing to real environmental performance improvements including a reduction in lease sizes for new shale gas drilling and reduced night time lighting at Imperial Oil Resources’ western Canada operations to name a few. Environmental considerations are now consistently making their way into pre-job planning meetings and job safety analyses.
EMFORCE is helping build a culture of responsible environmental performance. The course continues to be successful for a number of reasons. It is continually updated by senior in-house environment and regulatory staff who deliver the material. Senior management actively and visibly provides support by personally opening and closing each session. In addition, the course features recent and relevant in-house case studies, uses breakout groups, and requires each participant to develop a "Personal Action Plan". Examples of expected behavior are modeled and discussed.
Operation of Germany's Largest Oilfield Mittelplate and Planning Further Exploratory Drilling in UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site Enclaves
Authors: Oppermann H. 
Published: September 2012

Abstract
Mittelplate is Germany's largest oilfield and has been operated by RWE Dea AG for more than 25 years. The partner company in this venture is WINTERSHALL Holding GmbH.
The oilfield is located in the southern part of the tidal flats on the territory of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein about 7.5 km off the shoreline. (Fig. 1)
Also additional oil reserve potential has been identified in the neighborhood of the Mittelplate oilfield and south of Mittelplate in the mouth of the river Elbe on the territory of the German state of Lower-Saxony. A total of four exploration wells are planned to be drilled.
Both, the Mittelplate oilfield and the potential new oil deposits are located below National Park Areas, which were dedicated as UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2009. The enclaves designated by UNESCO enable to use the existing offshore manmade drilling and production island and the four offshore locations for further exploratory drilling. These activities do not conflict with UNESCO rules
The article gives an overview on producing an oilfield and planning for exploratory drilling including the permitting process within this environmentally highly sensitive and protected area.
The Ecological Resources on Shell Mound Habitats Surrounding Platform Decommissioning Sites in the Santa Barbara Channel, California, USA
Authors: Krause P. R. , Hill R. , Gala W. R. , Hartley M. K. 
Published: September 2012

Abstract
In 1996, four offshore oil and gas platforms were removed from the Santa Barbara Channel off the coast of Santa Barbara, California. The four platforms, Heidi, Hope, Hazel, and Hilda, (collectively the 4H platforms) were installed between 1958 and 1965 and provided oil and gas production until their decommissioning. As part of decommissioning the above water structures (topsides) and legs (jackets) were removed at the sea floor. At each of the 4H sites, the underlying drill cutting mounds were left behind. These mounds are covered with several meters of "shell hash" from bivalve shells dislodged from the platform jacket and natural sedimentation that has accumulated in the 30+ years following cessation of drilling activities. The resulting "shell mounds" remain on the natural soft bottom and provide a rare complex hard bottom habitat within the Santa Barbara Channel area. To date few studies have focused on the shell mound habitats relative to the surrounding soft bottom habitats. This study was designed to evaluate the shell mound habitat and soft bottom areas and included a nearby deep natural rocky reef reference location.
A multi-season fish trapping study using standard commercial fish traps was conducted to address the ecological value of the shell mounds sites. Data were collected from the 4H shell mound sites, two soft bottom reference sites, and a deep natural reef location over a two year period. The study design was a paired sampling of sites within a depth gradient (i.e., deep and shallow) on an approximate quarterly basis. The assemblage of fish and invertebrates observed in the fish traps from the mounds include several species of rockfishes (genus Sebastes), ling cod, rock crabs, whelks and bat stars that are typical of hard bottom communities in the Santa Barbara Channel. Results indicate that the shell mounds have more fish and invertebrates and a more diverse benthic community than the soft-bottom reference areas. These data supports the conclusion that the fish habitat value of the shell mounds is greater than that of the surrounding soft bottom habitat and similar to the deep natural reefs of the area.
An Innovative Way To Spread Safe Behaviour
Authors: Matkin Darren B. , Scotti Davide 
Published: September 2012

Abstract
Following a year of research and development, Saipem introduced another innovative and inspiring element toward solidifying it's change program ‘Leadership in Health & Safety (LiHS). Showing the same determination to establish a true organisational shift in safety performance, as demonstrated for the first phases of LiHS, again the CEO plays an active and highly visible role in the release and endorsement of the Saipem ‘Leading Behaviours’.
The campaign comprises of five simple ‘non-negotiable’ behaviours launched into the organisation early 2011, with a strategy deigned to inject very simple and transferable ‘Leading Behaviours’ throughout the organisation. The long term aim is to generate an embedment of the behaviours in the very DNA of the workforce's everyday actions and decisions, creating a further trigger toward the organisational safety cultures growth, multiplying specifically chosen behaviours to become a normality.
The behaviours are released into the organisation through a multi-channelled cascade approach, utilising e-based platforms with you-tube style TV, intranet and internal press and publication releases. Simultaneously, each behaviour is cascaded by local Management and Supervisors to the thousands of employees through a series of high influence events. Supporting this release is a 25 minute film, following the personal and working life of a Saipem employee who, through the film drama, demonstrates to the viewer how the Leading Behaviours can simply be interwoven into their own working life. The five behaviours are also introduced independently through visual media, and with each behaviour released into the organisation at six week intervals. These five descriptive clips are led by the CEO, on-camera for each one personally describing and endorsing the behaviours, encouraging the practice and adoption of the behaviours company-wide.
The innovative methodology exploits the knowledge that Humans are highly susceptible to following, copying and imitating their peers, easily adapting to a behavioural and cultural change when those around them are actively involved in the same change process.
The Impacts of National Culture on Safety Culture in the Global Oil and Gas Industry
Authors: Merritt Steve 
Published: September 2012

Abstract
Safety culture is one of the most-studied subjects in the safety literature today, although no agreement exists on exactly what it means. Most safety culture research has been conducted in high-hazard industries such as nuclear power, aviation, and offshore oil and gas production. Only limited research has investigated links between safety culture and the prevailing national culture. This paper proposes that efforts to build safety culture and improve safety performance in the oil and gas industry will be enhanced if the prevailing national culture is assessed and a location-specific plan is developed.
Within Chevron, current safety culture initiatives include defining and advocating for "Operational Discipline" and focusing on "Behaviors to Support Managing Safe Work" in the upstream sector. Both of these approaches have distinctly North American cultural underpinnings. The HSE opportunity this paper addresses is building a strong safety culture across the many varied national cultures where Chevron operates. This paper reviews the key attributes by which national cultures are characterized with a particular emphasis on the areas most applicable to safety culture in oil and gas settings. For example, in a national culture characterized by high power distance and predominantly masculine traits such as those found in Latin America or the Middle East, techniques that work well in North America or Europe will likely not be as effective. It will argue that fit-for-purpose safety culture maturation plans are needed for each location.
The paper should be of particular interest to leaders who are working in business units outside of their home country. Hopefully they will learn something that will help them to better understand key aspects of national cultures and allow them to customize and accelerate their safety culture development efforts back on the job.
Learning from Events: A Process Approach
Authors: Drupsteen Linda , Zwetsloot Gerard , Groeneweg Jop 
Published: September 2012

Abstract
Many organizations try to prevent reoccurrence of incidents by analyzing incidents and implement recommendations based in their findings. Unfortunately this approach is not without pitfalls. Between ‘reporting’ and ‘evaluation of the effect of actions’ there are several hurdles to be taken. Only by looking at all the steps in the process organizations can ‘learn from incidents’. This contrasts with the traditional view that success can be achieved by looking at a limited number of factors, e.g. ‘the tool’ itself. Furthermore, organizations mistakenly believe that by formally zorganizing each of the steps they take away the hurdles. A checklist was generated aimed at the identification of the hurdles in the learning from incident process. Several hundred safety professionals in the Netherlands and employees in a tank storage company were asked to identify the so called ‘bottlenecks’ in their own organization and describe if each of the steps has been formally organized and how it worked in practice. Interviews with focus groups were held to identify causes of the hurdles. The learning potential from accidents is reduced, many of the steps in the learning from incidents process have flaws.
This cannot be improved by taking one weak link out, only an approach that takes all steps into account can significantly improve the learning potential of organizations. Furthermore, the level of formal organizations has little predictive value for the ‘real situation’. Learning from incidents is of key importance for organizations to prevent their reoccurrence. This paper will describe the ‘learning from incident process’, will describe the main hurdles and their causes and will help organizations understand why ‘Its not the tool’ and why formal organization is not sufficient to guarantee success.
Fariiq DOIRC—A Strategic Enabler for Top Quartile Performance in Safety in Abu Dhabi
Authors: Boucif Mustapha , Kuyken Chris , Al Hammadi Adel , Ghany Wael Abdel , El-Adawy Ahmed 
Published: September 2012

Abstract
The Drilling Operations Incident Review Committee (DOIRC) was formed in UAE in 2006 as a means to discuss incidents that have occurred during the last month to ensure that all lessons learned are shared among all contractors and disseminated throughout their organizations. Members of this committee include the Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO) Drilling Division, the National Drilling Company (NDC), and various members from key service providers. DOIRC meetings are useful for discussing and explaining any new safety improvement initiatives with the rest of the committee.
The success of the program clearly shows that the behavior of all stakeholders in drilling can be changed through effective communication, visible commitment, and involvement by top management. Maintaining constant communication between the drilling crews, service providers, and the top management of ADCO and its contractors has had a positive impact on the safety behavior of the drilling crews since the committee was formed.
The DOIRC program was the key factor for ADCO drilling to reach and maintain a world-class performance of 0.09 LTIFR, the lowest in ADCO drilling history in 2008, 2009, and 2010, with more than 20 million km driven without injuries. From a service-provider perspective, Halliburton has performed the last eight years with ZERO recordable motor vehicle incidents and one lost time personal injury incident.
Behavior Management: A Successful Approach
Authors: Tauseef Abid , Villegas Mauricio , Bordage Pierre , Turner Lee 
Published: September 2012

Abstract
In the last two decades, organizations have used safety programs and advanced safety management systems to improve their safety performance. Safety management systems, policies, procedures and standards along with better tools and equipment have played an important role in decreasing incident and injury frequencies in the oil and gas industry. However the industry has realized that employee participation is the key to success for all safety programs. Unless employees demonstrate a positive behavior in actively enforcing the safety programs and standards in place, the organization's safety programs remain virtually ineffective.
A review of the integrated project management (IPM) arm of an oilfield services company incident reporting database revealed that most of the risk identification reports (RIRs) logged in the system were related to unsafe conditions, whereas only a few were related to unsafe acts. In an effort to reduce this trend, a decision was made to launch a behavior based safety (BBS) program called observation intervention program.
The program had already been introduced in some parts of the company but was not formalized. The program was implemented through the company's health, safety and environment (HSE) management system utilizing the company's existing BBS-based program. To measure the success of the program, a number of leading and lagging indicators were chosen from the driving and injury prevention areas. There were four specific areas of observations created in the reporting system: driving, injury prevention, environmental and general observation interventions. The campaign was launched in 2010, and the indicators were monitored for 2010, 2011, and 2012. An analysis of the results revealed that these indicators showed a remarkable improvement with increased employee participation in the BBS program.
This paper describes the process of the successful development and implementation of a BBS program and the essential factors that need to be considered in order to improve employee participation and avoid failures.
Beyond Bulletins and Presentations: Use of Scenarios to Learn from Incidents
Authors: Novatsis Emily , McCormick Paul , Lardner Ronny 
Published: September 2012

Abstract
Many organisations in the process industries seek to improve how they learn and embed lessons from incidents. Yet we hear less from such organisations on trialling novel learning methods in search of better ways to learn from incidents. This paper describes a project that used an engaging and interactive method to help personnel learn generic lessons from previous isolation incidents. A realistic written scenario was developed based on the common characteristics of previous isolation incidents. The scenario was completed by teams in facilitated workshops. Information about the scenario was progressively revealed, and at each stage participants were asked to identify what they would think and do as the events unfolded. Correct answers were discussed as a group, illustrating potential "holes" in organisational barriers if understanding or application of these barriers was lacking. Evaluation of the approach indicated that the scenario was a more interesting and engaging method of learning from incidents than passive methods such as emails, bulletins, and presentations. This project is being extended to scenarios for lessons from other themes of incidents. Using scenarios to strengthen individual learning impact from incidents is unusual, and can be applied by other organisations seeking a deeper level of learning from incidents.
Developing Internal Human Factors Capability in an Australian Oil and Gas Company
Authors: Novatsis E. , McCormick P. , Lardner R 
Published: September 2012

Abstract
The contribution of human factors in major accident events is well established and accepted. Organisations are increasingly seeking help on how to best understand and manage human factors issues. This paper describes how Woodside has progressively strengthened its internal human factors capability over the past five years to complement its existing skill set and improve health and safety performance. Woodside began by creating a new role in its health and safety function for an organisational psychologist. The purpose of this role was to deliver a range of human factors projects, increase the profile and knowledge of human factors in the business, as well as provide and guide the use of human factors tools and methods. The first project was on the subject of safety culture and the work scope has progressed to cover a wide range of human factors topics important for high hazard industries. Human factors focal points were also established and these people are given more knowledge and skills on certain topics to provide support at a local level. This capability is supported by a steering group, aligned plans, preferred tools and practices, and human factors competencies. Woodside now has multiple full time human factors advisers, a wide network of human factors focal points, and many human factors "spotters". Improvement in a number of areas has been achieved and a demand and enthusiasm created for using human factors methods to improve all aspects of performance, not just health and safety. This paper will interest organisations wanting to strengthen their internal human factors capability.