The Fundamentals of Asset Integrity Management

Online Training Series Course Summary

COURSE B: THE FUNDAMENTALS OF ASSET INTEGRITY RISK

MANAGEMENT

Module 2: Managing integrity throughout the asset lifecycle

Risk management through the project lifecycle

Typical project lifecycle:
1. Screening/acquiring asset - this stage the business concepts are screened and during this
stage, you must ask what hazards are present and what are the major hazards that can
affect your concept?
2. Concept Evaluation - evaluate the concepts for feasibility of each concept and assess
which is the lowest risk, what hazards can be optioned out and how can the remaining
hazards in order to decide which concept you'd go with.
3. Design, build, modify - whilst I this stage, assess the barriers and layers of protection.
Questions that may be asked would be like what hazards can be designed out? How can
the remaining hazards be managed? What future (e.g. decommissioning) hazards can be
minimized by modifying the design? Control of construction workplace hazards by
revisiting the earlier assessment and find out if the as-built hazards as predicted?
4. Operate and maintain - Plant operators and plant maintenance teams are left with the
hazards that the designers weren't able to get rid of. In these cases, Management of
Change procedures should be put I place and utilized, and both process and personal
safety issues should be maintained. Questions asked here can be - are our operating and
maintenance hazards continuing to be controlled? And are there any new or changing
hazards?
5. Life extension, Decommission - When assets have reached the end of their lifecycle, what
liabilities remain? There is an obligation to return to the original condition whilst
controlling the workplace hazards during this process.

Hazards must be identified and risks assessed at each stage of a facilitys life, from design
& build, commissioning, operations & maintenance, to decommissioning, etc.

Ability to make decisions vs. project schedule

Now the more we get through a project, the more information we start to accumulate
and so project confidence increases. When this confidence increases, the willingness
to spend increases particularly with regards to risk management. The more we
understand the risks, the better the appreciation of the risks and then it becomes
easier to spend money to put controls in place to mitigate risks.
The ability to reduce risk is greatest at the earliest stage by walking away from the risk.

Historical risk reduction effort in projects

Risk management historically was left down to the end of a project and so lots of
money was spent in the operations and maintenance phases. Over the years, hazards
were designed out and hence more money was spent during the design stages.

Course summary developed by Michelle McIntyre on behalf of Oil and Gas Fundamentals Oil and Gas Fundamentals 2012

THIS IS A CONFIDENTIAL SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS OF AN ONLINE TRAINING COURSE FOUND AT WWW.OILANDGASFUNDAMENTALS.COM.
IT IS FOR THE REVIEW OF COURSE PARTICIPANTS ONLY AND IS NOT FOR DISSEMINATION COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS APPLY
The Fundamentals of Asset Integrity Management
Online Training Series Course Summary

Risk reduction in the whole lifecycle - why?

The more we understand what risks we are getting into and understanding the
magnitude of the problems we're getting into, it becomes easier to predict risks and
how to go towards the future.
The more we understand these factors, better budgeting happens from the early
stages and risk reduction is not an afterthought for it will be built into the asset/system
and in implemented in the beginning of the life cycle.
This encourages us to make informed decisions (risk vs. consequence) which is a by-
product of this better understanding. These informed decisions allow us to make
changes earlier rather than later which can be costly.
The potential to reduce risk peaks in the beginning of the project lifecycle and tends to
drop off at the end.
There are different layers of controls that can be put in place at various times
throughout the project lifecycle.

Risk control hierarchy a progression of controls

1. Eliminate remove hazard altogether/switch for a less hazardous alternative
2. Reduce volume, inventory, concentration, speed, voltage, etc.
3. Isolate (the hazard from people) move further away, enclose, add guards,
circuit breakers, isolation valves, lock-out-tag-out, etc.
4. Control (the extent of exposure) work processes /procedures, safety
systems, alarms, trips, interlocks, limit switches, permit to work
5. Personal Protection Equipment (PPE)
6. Discipline training, supervision, instruction, information, awareness of
incidents, safety meetings, disciplinary process
The controls at the top tend to be the most effective and at the bottom, these are
considered to be like the last resort type of controls. Everything else must be tried
firstly before trying the last two. This follows the NEBOSH hierarchy of controls.
Another hierarchy of controls are as follows:
1. Eliminate - totally eliminate the risk altogether
2. Substitute - maybe you can use an alternative substance or equipment
3. Engineering - maybe additional equipment modifications can be done
4. Segregate/Separate - the hazard can be separated by guards, space, shields,
5. Reduce personnel/time exposure - you can limit the number of persons
exposed, control the exposure time, reduce frequency of hazardous tasks etc..
6. Improve Personnel awareness - by additional supervision, signage, more
training, drills etc..
7. Personal Protective Equipment - through the usage of PPE such as steel toe
boots, hard hats, gloves, etc..
8. Recovery - such as secondary containment, escape and rescue equipment,
Again, always try to start with elimination and last thing should be recovery!
In the hierarchy, you normally start off by dealing with the hardware controls then as
you progress to through the hierarchy, you deal with the controls for controls for

Course summary developed by Michelle McIntyre on behalf of Oil and Gas Fundamentals Oil and Gas Fundamentals 2012

THIS IS A CONFIDENTIAL SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS OF AN ONLINE TRAINING COURSE FOUND AT WWW.OILANDGASFUNDAMENTALS.COM.
IT IS FOR THE REVIEW OF COURSE PARTICIPANTS ONLY AND IS NOT FOR DISSEMINATION COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS APPLY
The Fundamentals of Asset Integrity Management
Online Training Series Course Summary

people. The entire hierarchy is to be supported by processes and procedures such as

management systems to manage the risks.

What is the intent of inherently safety design?

Eliminate hazard completely or reduce its magnitude sufficiently to eliminate need for
elaborate safety systems and procedures.
Preferably by means inherent in process and thus permanent and inseparable from it.
Go beyond elimination or reduction of a hazard - it also applies to layers of protection
Now, inherent safety design in when we put things in place where we dont have to worry
about the hazards. There are many areas where we can act, look and see if we can reduce
the need to actively reduce risk. We want low level of harm of things go wrong and to
avoid hazards instead of controlling them.

Inherently safer design through the facility lifecycle

Inherent safety tends to be in the front end stages such as in the early stages like design
stages. Hazards should be avoided/reduced at all costs for the application of inherently
safe practices. The earlier the hazards are gotten rid of, the less we can worry about
managing it throughout the lifecycle.
Critical examination - guide word approach towards reviewing the design intent of a
particular operation and questioning whether it can be improved by looking at key
concepts associated with inherent safety and questioning each aspect of the design.

Inherent safety thinking

Intensify - can we reduce the amount of hazards at any particular time? Can we reduce
the amount of time taken to perform a particular operation so that we reduce our
exposure to it?
Attenuate - can we have less hazardous process conditions? Can a process medium be
substituted with something less hazardous?
Substitute - replacing something by a less hazardous alternative. If you get rid of the
hazard, the less you have to manage it.
Simplify - to design out the problems rather than having to manage them such that we
can get rid of the issue rather than having to implement additional equipment/features
to deal with them.
Change early - the sooner we know what we're getting into, the sooner everyone
understands what we're getting into and the easier it is to make sure that the issues are
thought through properly.
We have to ensure that we have a process in place to identify the controls and to make sure
that those controls continue to function.

Value Assurance/Tollgate Reviews (VAR)

The idea is before we proceed to the next phase of a particular project that we have made
a commercial decision about whether or not we can make money out of it, whether the
market will support it, whether we can get planning permission and all of those issues. But
most importantly, that we understand the risks and what the controls need to be

Course summary developed by Michelle McIntyre on behalf of Oil and Gas Fundamentals Oil and Gas Fundamentals 2012

THIS IS A CONFIDENTIAL SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS OF AN ONLINE TRAINING COURSE FOUND AT WWW.OILANDGASFUNDAMENTALS.COM.
IT IS FOR THE REVIEW OF COURSE PARTICIPANTS ONLY AND IS NOT FOR DISSEMINATION COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS APPLY
The Fundamentals of Asset Integrity Management
Online Training Series Course Summary

throughout these 5 stages that we've actually got the controls and that they continue to
function in the way we expect them to function.
Reviews are held at key decision stages:
Initiation / identification - Agree understanding, objectives & expectations before
committing. Key risks? Can we make it work? Stopper:
What are we committing to? Should we do it at all?
Feasibility - Risks? Opportunities? Showstoppers? Uncertainties? Do we have
sufficient knowledge to proceed to next stage? Stopper: Do we understand
business environment enough to proceed to concept?
Concept selection / Define plans - Optimum alternative / plan? Have we fully
defined what we are going to do? Management systems? Stopper: What we know
what we need? Do we have plans to get what we need?
Final investment decision - Is everything in place? Should we release the funds?
Stopper: Are we ready to execute?
Implementation - Did we achieve predicted performance? Lessons learned?
Remaining risks? Further opportunities? Stopper: Is everything performing as
expected? Are we on target?
Going through the phases we get more defined and accurate information that allows us
to make better decisions because in moving through the stages, more and more money
is committed into the processes.
There is no point in spending all our efforts in the design phases and making sure this is
an excellent asset ready to run and we don't look after it during the rest of the lifetime
cycle! We need to have something in place that allows us to design the plant properly
and to maintain it throughout the lifecycle.
VAR process
The PLAN DO CHECK ACT cycle is very important in every step throughout the lifecycle of the project. There must be
something in place to say that controls that are in place to say they've given us an acceptable level of retained risk
and that we have something in place to make sure that these controls function during the design phases.
The stakeholders have to be shown that this is going to be a safe facility that is designed safely and will continue to
remain safe as can be.
What is a Safety/HSE Case?
Safety Case demonstrates that we know and understand the risks and this is a document showing how we are going
to manage these risks and how we are going to continue to manage the risks to a level as reasonably practical.
Safety cases came about from prescriptive legislations put forth by regulatory bodies.
3. A Safety/HSE Case is a detailed document demonstrating that formal risk assessments have been done, hazards
are being managed and showing how management systems work in practice. It provides assurance that gaps
are being addressed, that risks are managed to ALARP, and a process exists to achieve continuous improvement.

Module 2 - Key learning points

1. Hazard assessment objectives change during different stages of a facilitys life cycle
2. Scope for risk reduction reduces from one stage to next stage
3. Changes are cheaper and easier early on
4. ALARP principles and requirements apply throughout the lifecycle
5. Failure to identify in good time, may not be an excuse for not implementing later

Course summary developed by Michelle McIntyre on behalf of Oil and Gas Fundamentals Oil and Gas Fundamentals 2012

THIS IS A CONFIDENTIAL SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS OF AN ONLINE TRAINING COURSE FOUND AT WWW.OILANDGASFUNDAMENTALS.COM.
IT IS FOR THE REVIEW OF COURSE PARTICIPANTS ONLY AND IS NOT FOR DISSEMINATION COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS APPLY