Asad, M M; Hassan, R B; Sherwani, F; Abbas, Z; Shahbaz, M S and Soomro, Q M (2019) Identification of effective safety risk mitigating factors for well control drilling operation: An explanatory research approach. Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, 17(1), pp. 218-229. ISSN 1726-0531
Abstract
Purpose: Every year, hundreds of people have died and thousands have been injured because of insufficient management of well control at oil and gas drilling and production sites. Major causes which have been reported in previous studies included uncontrollable blowouts and failure of blowout preventers because of insufficient safety practices. These onshore and offshore blowout disasters not only harm the work force but also critically affect the environment and marine life. In this research paper, a detailed quantitative survey and qualitative risk assessments (RA) have been carried out for assessing the potentially hazardous activities associated with well control along with their appropriate controls and risk reduction factors and mitigating measures in Middle East and south East Asian countries. Design/methodology/approach: The sequential explanatory research design has been adopted in this study. Whereas, descriptive statistical approach has been used for the quantitative data analysis of this study. While, in-depth interview approach has been used for qualitative data collection. Similarly, what-if analysis method has been adopted in this study for the identification of effective safety and health risk mitigating factors because it provides in-depth information from health and safety environment experts. Findings: The cumulative quantitative results based on the response from Saudi Arabian drilling industry have indicated that the well control operation is highly hazardous then Malaysian and Pakistani oil and gas industries. Likewise, findings from what-if analysis approach demonstrate that the drilling crewmembers have repetitively faced life threatening hazards which occur (safety and chemical) during well control onshore and offshore operation because of oil base mud, confined space at site, pinch points and falling during working on blow out preventers. According to the overall result, respondents have highly recommended engineering and administrative hazard controlling factors as most suitable for the elimination of safety and chemical hazards during well control activities. Practical implications: Besides, the developed methodological framework for the identification of suitable hazard controls can also be effectively used for potential hazards reorganization and identification of suitable hazard controls for other drilling and production industries and regions for accident prevention and safety and health management. Originality/value: This is a first comparative research study which has been carried out in Malaysian, Saudi Arabian and Pakistani onshore and offshore oil and gas industries for well control health and safety management and reorganization of most effective hazards mitigating factors at drilling sites.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | drilling safety; oil and gas; risk assessment; risk management; safety and health; well control operation |
| Index terms: | research design, risk assessment, mitigating measure, risk management, oil and gas, health and safety management, health risk, Middle East, interview, accident prevention, research paper, health and safety, data analysis, risk reduction, comparative research, survey, drilling, methodology, hazard controlling |
| Subjects: | research dissemination and communication, data collection methods, risk assessment, research design and methodology, data analysis and analytics, health safety and environment, financial risk, physical geography and landforms, research methods, industry analysis, environmental health, building construction |
| Topics: | Risk Management, Sustainability, Construction Technology, Health and Safety, Cost Management, Information Management, Research Practice, Geographical Context |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here