Occupational Health And Safety Policies In The UK Oil And Gas Industry: A Research Proposal

Literature Review

Health and safety is a crucial responsibility that needs to be considered by each and every industry. Risks associated with health and safety has the potential to affect the operations of an organization. Efficient management of risks determines the potentiality of an organization to grow and prosper. This is because, by managing risk associated with the business, the management of an organization will be able to ensure the security of the health, assets and opportunities and take full advantages of the same.

The oil and gas company is considered to be one of the riskiest industries across the world. Interruptions during oil production as a result of fire accidents frequently lead economic losses along with potential hazards to the environment and living beings. Employees of the oil and gas industry are found to be more exposed towards food or water borne illness, infectious diseases along with vector or wildlife induced diseases. Individuals who work in the oil and gas industry are exposed to benzene and Naturally Radioactive material or NORM. The two mentioned substances are highly dangerous to health and has the potential to kill an individual.

The topic that will be researched on includes the impact of occupational health and safety policies related to the oil and gas company on the employees of the mentioned industry. A goods number of researches have been conducted on occupational health and safety issues associated with the oil and gas industry. However, when it comes to the impact or effectiveness of the policies associated with the mentioned issue, a lack of literature can be evidenced. Thus the aim of the research is to analyze the impact of health and safety policies related to the oil and gas industry. The research also aims to identify various kinds of health and safety issues faced by the employees of United Kingdom. Determination of the health and safety issues as well  as  the types of policies to counter those is highly helpful for drawing an overall picture of the situation. This in turn will enable the author to provide effective recommendation on how the health and safety management can be enhanced in UK oil and Gas Company.

The oil and gas industry of UK undergoes a huge number of criticisms when it comes to health and safety policies associated with the industry. The chief reason behind this includes numerous activities within the industry like usage of chemical for various processes. This includes cementing, completion, stimulation as well as production. According to several researchers, the occupational hazards associated with the exposure to the mentioned agent s have received little attention from the management of oil and gas companies in UK (Jenner and Lamadrid 2013). As a result of this, several incidents resulting in major illness or even death of employees have been reported recently.

In order to identify, analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of occupational health and safety policies in the Oil and gas industry of UK, the study will try to answer the following research questions.

1. What are the major health and safety issues faced by the employees of oil and gas industry?
2. What are the current health and safety policies associated with the oil and gas industry of UK?
3. What challenges do the oil and gas companies face when it comes to the prevention of accidents and hazards?
4. What are the major recommendations that can be provided to the management of oil and gas industry in order to improve the health snd safety practices associated with the oil and gas industry?

Research Methodology

The chief aim of the research paper is to identify the effectiveness of the health and safety policies when it comes to prevention of issues in the oil and gas industry of UK.

The following objectives will be addressed by the research

To determine the various kinds of health and safety issues associated with the oil and gas industry of UK. This may include hazards associated with dangerous chemicals and other processes involved in the industry (Taylor, Bogdan. and DeVault 2015).

To conduct an interview with the managers of popular oil and Gas Company and ask those about different policies the companies have implemented to promote health and safety within the workplace.

To provide recommendations to the management of the oil and gas industry so that the condition of employees working in the sector can be improved

For identifying the chief issues associated with the health and safety of the worker working in the UK oil and gas industry and the effectiveness of the polices to prevent or eradicate the issues, a literature review of relevant literature have been performed bellow:

Lees (2012) in his literature have reviewed various processes associated with the industry along with the various kinds of chemicals used in each process The author of the research have emphasized on those processes for which significant toxicity has been established. Along with that priority have also been given to those processes that lack incomplete information on their chemistry and health hazards. According to Kelland, (2014), the services associated with oil and gas well drilling involves different kinds of equipments as well as materials. Recognizing as well as controlling the hazards is highly crucial for preventing vital injuries as well as deaths. The chief hazards associated with the oil and gas industries of UK includes vehicle collisions, explosions and fires, falls from height, confined spaces, ergonomic Hazards, electrical as well as other hazardous energy, high pressure lines and equipments , machine hazards and lastly, electrical and other hazardous energy.  Lindøe, Baram and Renn  (2013) state that highway vehicle crashes can be considered to be a major cause of oil and gas extraction workers fatalities in UK.

According to the a survey, death of  4 of every 10 employees in the mentioned industry is the result of highway vehicle accident. Skogdalen and Vinnem (2012) argued that another major reason behind the life hazards of oil and gas employees in UK includes fire and explosion. Employees of the mentioned industry have faced the risk of fire as well as explosion due to ignition of flammable vapors or gases. Major flammable gases evolved during the work include hydrogen Sulphide and vapors that are released from trucks, wells, production equipments as well as surface equipments like shale shaker and tanks. The source of ignition generally includes electrical or static energy sources, lightening, cigarettes, open flames, hot surfaces, frictional heat and cutting and welding tools. According to Yusuf et al. 2013, a good number of death of oil and gas workers have taken place due to fall from heights. Working in oil and gas industry involves accessing platforms and equipments located high above the ground. Falling from heights while assessing equipments is one of the most common incidents resulting in major injury or even death. Apart from that, employees are often required to enter confined place like petroleum or other storage tanks, reserve pits, mud pits, sand storage containers as well as other excavated areas. The chief hazards faced by the oil and gas workers of UK when it comes to working in confined place includes ignition of flammable vapor or gases. Confined place that contains serious atmospheric hazards must should be monitored continuously.  Bergh et al. (2014) stated that with the enhancement of technology, ergonomic hazards suffered by the employee of oil and gas industry have got reduced to a considerable amount. Ergonomic risks associated with the oil and gas industry includes risks associated with lifting heavy items, reaching over head, pushing as well as pulling heavy loads, working in body postures that are not comfortable as well as performing the same or similar task repeatedly. A survey states that with the implementation of new technologies, the rate of injuries suffered by the workers of the oil and gas industry has got reduced by a considerable amount.

Health and Safety in the Oil and Gas Industry

As being stated by Small et al. (2014) one of the key challenges associated with the installations an equipment includes asset integrity. The research stated that offshore installation starts to raise safety concern when they work beyond their designed life. According to a survey, a 1 per cent enhancement in platform age leads to a 0.3632 per cent enhancement in the rate of accidents (Lewis 2015). Frequent changing of installation ownership makes it more difficult for the management to provide appropriate maintenance over time.

According to the offshore Installations (Offshore Safety Directive) regulation 2015, operates other owners of the oil and gas industry should prepare a safety case that demonstrate their ability to control seious accidents risks effectively and get it accepted by HSE. The mentioned regulation also suggests that the owners need to consult with the installations’ safety representatives during the preparation, revision as well as the review of the safety cases. Maintaining the integrity of the process plant, installation structure, temporary refuge, equipments, integrity of wells and pipelines throughout the life cycle are the major concern of the Uk government. According to the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (Application outside Great Britain) Order 2013 (SI 2013/240), active cooperation of the employees in the mentioned industry as well as with their coworkers is highly required in order to ensure health and safety at work. According to the mentioned regulation, employees needs to carry out the a detailed assessment of the risk before initiating their work and implement effective control measures. As per the health and safety policies, the management of the oil and gas companies are subjected to provide health and safety training to all the employees free of costs. The training should be arranged outside their normal hours of work and the extended hours should be considered as the extension of time at work. Jenner and Lamadrid (2013) stated that while a good number of companies in the UK oil and gas industry are found to undergo failure while implementing the above mentioned policies effectively.

Research philosophy

The research philosophy can be defined as the belief about the method with the help of which data about the research will be gathered. The term epistemology encompasses the different types of philosophies associated with the research approach. The research philosophy for this research will be Realism. Realism is defined to be a branch of epistemology that relate to scientific enquiry. Realism research philosophy can be segregated into two groups that include direct realism and critical realism (Cotton, Rattle and Van Alstine 2014). While direct realism portrays the result through personal human senses, critical realism does not completely relies on the sensation as well as images obtained from the real world. For this research, direct realism will be followed.

Research approach

The research approach taken for this research includes Inductive research approach. The approach of a research can be classified into three approaches, namely, deductive, inductive and abductive research approach. The inductive research approaches, known premises are used in order to generate untested conclusions. The data collection used in this research approach is used to explore a phenomenon, creation of conceptual frame work and identification of themes and patterns of the research (Lewis 2015).

Occupational Health and Safety Policies

Research design

The research designed can be defined as the systematic approach used by the researcher in order to conduct a scientific study (Cotton, Rattle and Van Alstine 2014). Research design can be differentiated into 4 segments that include exploratory research, descriptive research, exploratory research and evolutionary research. While exploratory research is used by the researcher to explore the answer of what and how, descriptive research includes more in-depth research of the same questions. The exploratory research on the other hand seeks to explain the subject matter of the research and hence answer all the questions like what, how and why. When it comes to the evolutionary research, it chiefly measures the effectiveness of the research. For this research, the exploratory research design will be followed.

Data collection

Considering the fact that both primary as well as secondary data will be collected for the research, mixed data collection method will be used to conduct the research. Primary data is defined as data that is collected directly from the sample for the first time and are original in character. Some of the major primary data collection process includes observation of the sample and direct communication with them in the form of personal interviews or survey. For this research, an in depth interview will be conducted with the selected sample for primary data collection (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault, 2015).

When it comes to secondary data, the mentioned data is defined as the data collected by other individual and have already passed through the statistical process. For this research paper, several peer reviewed journals relevant to the research topic will be used as the source of secondary data collection.

Sampling

Sampling can be defined as the process that includes selecting appropriate group of individuals for a study in order to collect the data effectively. Sampling can be segregated into probability an non probability sampling. While probability sampling involves random selection of samples, non probability sampling involves selection of a specific group of sample appropriate for the research. For conducting this study, non probability sampling will be followed. For primary data collection, managers of 3 popular Oil and gas company of UK will be interviewed. For secondary data collection, data will be collected from 10 relevant research articles.

Data analysis

In order to conduct the research, qualitative data analysis method will be followed. Data analysis method can be differentiated into qualitative, quantitative and mixed data analysis method. While qualitative data analysis involves in depth analysis of the research question, quantities data analysis includes coding data and assigning levels (Cotton, Rattle and Van Alstine 2014). For his research paper, Qualitative data analysis will be performed.

Ethical consideration

While conducting the research, the researcher will ensure that no fabrication as well as falsifying the data has taken place. The primary goal of the research includes promoting the pursuit of knowledge and truth. Secondly, the confidentiality of the samples will be maintained throughout the research process. In order to encourage the behavior of trust, mutual respect and accountability ethical behavior will be encouraged. The samples will be informed about the purpose and the goal o the research before conducting the interview.

Gantt chart

	1-2 weeks	1-2 months	2-3 months	1-2 months	3 months	1-2 months	1-2 months	1-2 months
Identification of the Research Area
Formulation of research Questions
Research proposal
Literature review
Data collection
Data analysis
Writing first draft
Writing Second Draft
Dissertation Due

Reference List

Bergh, L.I.V., Hinna, S., Leka, S. and Jain, A., 2014. Developing a performance indicator for psychosocial risk in the oil and gas industry. Safety science, 62, pp.98-106.

Cotton, M., Rattle, I. and Van Alstine, J., 2014. Shale gas policy in the United Kingdom: An argumentative discourse analysis. Energy Policy, 73, pp.427-438.

Jenner, S. and Lamadrid, A.J., 2013. Shale gas vs. coal: Policy implications from environmental impact comparisons of shale gas, conventional gas, and coal on air, water, and land in the United States. Energy Policy, 53, pp.442-453.

Katz, J., 2015. A theory of qualitative methodology: The social system of analytic fieldwork. Méthod (e) s: African Review of Social Sciences Methodology, 1(1-2), pp.131-146.

Kelland, M.A., 2014. Production chemicals for the oil and gas industry. CRC press.

Lees, F., 2012. Lees’ Loss prevention in the process industries: Hazard identification, assessment and control. Butterworth-Heinemann.

Lewis, S., 2015. Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Health promotion practice, 16(4), pp.473-475.

Lindøe, P.H., Baram, M. and Renn, O. eds., 2013. Risk governance of offshore oil and gas operations. Cambridge University Press.

Skogdalen, J.E. and Vinnem, J.E., 2012. Quantitative risk analysis of oil and gas drilling, using Deepwater Horizon as case study. Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 100, pp.58-66.

Small, M.J., Stern, P.C., Bomberg, E., Christopherson, S.M., Goldstein, B.D., Israel, A.L., Jackson, R.B., Krupnick, A., Mauter, M.S., Nash, J. and North, D.W., 2014. Risks and risk governance in unconventional shale gas development.

Taylor, S.J., Bogdan, R. and DeVault, M., 2015. Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource. John Wiley & Sons.

Yusuf, Y.Y., Gunasekaran, A., Musa, A., El-Berishy, N.M., Abubakar, T. and Ambursa, H.M., 2013. The UK oil and gas supply chains: An empirical analysis of adoption of sustainable measures and performance outcomes. International Journal of Production Economics, 146(2), pp.501-514.