Oil and gas industries in the verge of safeguarding environmental concerns, the health of individuals and the safety of the surrounding have declared the public interest to sustainable development attainment. The recent years has demonstrated most industries struggle for operational integration of sustainable develops in the mission plan and organizational goals. Attaining sustainability in oil and gas industry has been a complex transformation in different parts of the world, thus drawing the attention of commentators, Non-Governmental Organizations and consumers to doubt the intentions and the speed progress of oil and gas industries in achieving and maintaining sustainability. Stakeholder’s reasons for doubting gas and oil sustainability are based on the following concerns;
First, is the sustainable development goal whose intent is achieving a fair and sustainable long-term balance booth economically, socially and in meeting societal, environmental needs. More often, industries are goals usually focused towards achieving financial short term goals through implementing targets that they consider more beneficial to their marketing chain. Business managers may find difficulties in adapting sustainability ideology. Sustainable implementation in such industries would, therefore, need commitment and company awareness creation. Secondly, attaining sustainability requires the application, formulation, and implementation of different desired outcomes which most oil and gas industries may not be able to corporate into their management systems. There is, therefore, the need to provide these industries with information on dealing with such sustainability challenges.
Most oil and gas companies serve significant roles to communities that they operate in. These industries are of economic, political and social impacts to the communities. The economic impacts of gas and oil industry can either be an individual, national to international. Some of the economic effects of gas and oil industry include; creation of employment, improved income. The oil industries have made it easier for business personnel to perform their duties quickly through the provision of electricity thus reducing climatic damages caused by traditional energy sources. Socially, gas and oil industries have improved the lives of individuals. The existence of oil industries has promoted better health care. Through oil production, transportation has been made easier. Politically, gas and oil industries have enhanced global biodiversity among nations through free trade. It has also led to the development of international environment policies aimed at safeguarding the environmental status of state economies. Nevertheless, gas and oil industries have also led to pollution of water sources, destruction of the ozone layer and mismanagement of other natural resources. The nuclear energy emitted by industries affects human health as it is the leading cause of cancer (Adgate et al. 2014). Nonetheless, oil and gas industries face major sustainability challenges in the desire to ensure sustainable development achievement and the creation of safety environments both the living and non-living creatures.
Sustainability challenges in gas and oil industries are categorized into three major groups which are; Environmental, Health, and Safety. However, other issues such as technology and government policies have also been reported as the sustainability challenge in the gas and oil industries.
Petroleum industries are one of the factors causing environmental degradation. During the production of oil, a lot of fumes are released into the air. The fumes released into the air have effects on humans, plants and the ozone layer. The effects on people include respiratory disease illness and growth of some cancer. Effect on plants includes damage on plants, i.e. blocking pores and even stunted the growth of plants (Simon & Prince, 2016). All the same, the environmental issues affecting sustainability in the oil and gas industries revolve around: management of hazardous and non-hazardous waste, managing air emissions, and spills.
Gas and oil industries face three significant challenges in managing the dangerous and non-hazardous wastes. The first problem that gas and oil industry faces in the management of hazardous waste is the lack of proper analysis of monthly waste plan (Konschnik and Boling, 2014 ). Most industries have no efficient approach to evaluating and monitoring waste released from their companies. They also lack clear records on the rate of hazardous and hazardous waste management thus making it difficult for such company to establish long-term plans for sustainability.
Secondly, government inspections and audits carried out are more often more pruned to corruption thus making it hard for oil industries to determine the real problem facing their industries. Lack of environmentally knowledgeable auditors is also another problem that hinders gas and oil sustainability. Most auditors are specialized in the financial field and may thus have little knowledge on environmental sustainability about hazardous and non-hazardous management.
Thirdly, the lack skilled workforce also poses a problem in the management of company facilities. The staff needs to be trained on the hazardous and non-hazardous waste management. Training has proven to be most expensive too costly and time-consuming, thus causing some companies to ignore training of staff and focus on more financial gain programs. Training the workforce may also be discouraging to employers as some employees may exit the company for another company immediately after training. It is difficult for businesses to maintain and achieve sustainability with the low-quality product and service delivery. Staffs need to be equipped with knowledge that will, in turn, enhance sustainability (Buckley and Casson, 2016).
Gas and oil industries face a sustainability challenge in the management of air emissions in two ways. First, there is a problem in the elimination of continuous flare process and replacing of the of the eruption process with technologically advanced flaring. This is due to the high cost of the flaring. More clients would prefer associating themselves with companies with technologically advanced flaring, thus posing a sustainability threat to organizations that cannot afford the on demand flaring. Secondly, most gas and oil industries have failed to set up controls that are geared towards capturing carbon IV oxide and sulfur dioxide emissions from the atmosphere (Hocking, 2016). These companies stand a risk of being closed down due to the international agreed-upon laws that discourage carbon IV oxide and sulfur emissions into the atmosphere due to its effect on human and climate (Axelrod & Van, 2014).
Gas and oil industries lack proper chemical storage facilities. Over and over again, the storage materials are usually more prone to damages thus causing leakages which prove to bring losses to the companies and also causes environmental pollution. Companies can never maintain or achieve sustainability if it keeps on recording loses rather than gaining profits. Secondly, the storage environment or locations for the chemicals may expose the chemicals to recipient damage. For instance; improperly stored chemicals may be stolen by thieves or damaged by harsh climatic conditions (Fingas, 2016). Companies also lack emergency preparedness mechanisms. For example, most oil and gas companies require plans dealing with oil spills scenarios; instead, most companies often deals with spills when they occur. This is risky as it poses more damages regarding loss and fire risks in cases where the discharge control personnel has to be outsourced from somewhere else.
The primary health management challenge in gas and oil industries is the monitoring of industrial hygiene. Industrial hygiene monitoring is the process that is aimed towards the evaluation of potential exposures to chemical, biological and physical hazards to employees with the work environment (Chartier, 2014). Employers are expected not only to evaluate these exposures but also to document the exposures that may prove harmful to employees and develop strategies for dealing with the exposures. Often monitoring of the exposures in the company may be categorized into qualitative and quantitative monitoring. Employers need to conduct qualitative monitoring of employees and enterprises operations and record negative exposure of employees to industrial operations. Employers are then supposed to develop determinants that are aimed towards evaluating the exposures to employee’s health (Schulte et al.,2013). However, this is never the case as most employers often ignore caring out employees’ hazardous exposure analysis. In other cases companies lack proper documentation and record of employees harmful exposures, thus making it hard for employees to comply with the company standards. Lack of health management or informative documents on employee’s exposure may arise legal conflicts between employees and the government especially in instances where employees need protection against a damaged caused at work as a result. Sustainability in the oil and gas industry can be achieved when companies develop better exposure programs to safeguard the health of their employees and also when employers establish a periodic program with the aim of conducting continuous monitoring and re-monitoring of the exposures to workers health. Nevertheless, the process of surveillance and re-monitoring may sometimes prove to be costly to some company owners (Iyiegbuniwe et al., 2016).
The major safety management issues affecting gas and oil industries are; Energy and process control issues, training of the workforce, human injuries and accidents (Silvestre and Gimenes, 2017).
Energy and process control is a systematic, organized and predictive procedure that are aimed towards ensuring efficient distribution of energy in the verge of covering organizational requirements while at the same time ensuring environmental sustainability. Gas and oil industries lack proper instrumented systems; some still function under old systems which are less safety as compared to the instrumented systems. Another problem is the lack of proper training and supervision of the workforce on the energy process and control measures.
The major challenge that affects workforce training on safety management is the lack of follow-up. After training on safety management, employees need to be supervised and monitored so as to ensure that they are appropriately applying whatever they learn. Lack of follow up hinders sustainability as employees have higher possibility if forgetting or not correctly applying what they have learnt thus prompting a repeat of the training again. Continuous training is expensive and time-consuming.
Human injuries and accidents are a barrier to sustainability as it reduces to the reduction of the labor force at work thus leading to slow delivery. In other instances, the company may be forced to spend more funds on treating employees injured while on duty.
Advancements in technology have led to significant competition in the global market thus resulting in the reduction of the value of gas and oil prices. Nevertheless, the introduction of new technologies has prompted the development of environmental friendly machines for use in gas and oil industries. Most gas and oil industries, especially in the developing countries, are not able to meet the cost of purchasing these machines, posing a greater challenge in the contemporary competitive market (Grant, 2016).
Environmental sustainability issues can be monitored through developing an effective waste plan that will enable organizations to easily monitor waste realize and identify the rate of waste realizes either on a weekly or monthly basis. The government together with the human rights commission bodies should advocate for transparency in company audits and inspections. Besides their financial knowledge, auditors sent to oil and gas industry should also be equipped with knowledge on environmental sustainability and industrial management. This will enhance proper evaluation of the company systems and encourage the development of strategies that may precipitate gas and oil industry sustainability. Air emissions can be eliminated by providing technologically advanced flaring at an affordable price. Companies should also invest in other air emission methods that are environment-friendly. Oil spills can be managed by providing auxiliary tanks and chemical storage materials that are free from any form of damage. Organizations should also develop emergency preparedness plans through employee training.
Health issues can be managed by conducting hygiene surveys so as to determine the real hazards at the workplace. Gas and oil industries should also advocate for employees safety by holding mandatory health cheek up’s on all employees before commencements of duties. Employees should be provided with protective gears and be mobilized on health issues that may result from their engagement in certain activities.
Human injuries at the workplace can be controlled through setting up safety barriers on the dangerous parts o or roles within the company. Employees should also be restricted from accessing highly hazardous department without the supervision of skilled personnel concerned with such hazardous units. People should be trained on methods and strategies of handling hazardous situations; workers should also be supervised in the verge of ensuring that they apply the organization safety principles efficiently. Both employees and consumers should be asked to wear protective gears anytime they are approaching or intending to touch chemicals or equipment that may be of harm to their health. Employers should also foster for consistent safety program for all employees, either by encouraging them to join institutions or by organizing both internal and external training programs. Energy and control issues can be managed by introducing the use of instrumented systems and through training.
Conclusion
The major sustainability challenges in gas and oil industries are; Environmental, Health, and Safety. Lack of proper management of environmental, health and safety issues in the oil and gas industries may lead to company’s stagnation, closure of companies or even precipitate conflict among the company, employee, and the government. Most of the sustainability issues in gas and oil industries are caused by lack of knowledge and sufficient skills (Carrillo,2004). There is thus need for training in ensuring that stakeholders are well equipped with knowledge that will promote sustainability of gas and oil industries. Another primary challenge relies on funding and the ever changing technological advancements. Gas and oil industries should formulate and implement competency assessments programs that will enhance organizational performance and efficiently through the adaption of techniques such as realization, identification, observation, creation, recreation and evaluation (Wathern, 2013).
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