Saad Al Kubaisi, Corporate HSE Manager at Qatar Petroleum, delivers a speech at the 8th Annual HSE Forum on Energy in Doha. THE incidences of major oil spills and international crises in the oil and gas sector has caused a dramatic shift in attitudes to managing operational risks, an industry expert has said recently, with executives now seriously questioning their approaches to risk management and its impact on commercial and operational performance. Iain Mackay, Executive Vice President of Petrotechnics, said oil and gas operators are now becoming more proactive in gaining a greater insight and assurance over operational performance and risk, as stakeholder expectations continue to grow. “There is increasing recognition across the oil and gas industry that serious incidents can be the result of a combination of factors and events,” said Mackay, a headline speaker at the recently held 8th Annual HSE Forum on Energy at the Doha Grand Hyatt Hotel. “Many of the existing Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) control systems used by the energy sector are unable to manage multiple points of activity and their associated risk. Organizations now need to consider the elements that contribute to cumulative risk and how data can be used to analyze and predict this risk.” According to the 2011 Ernst & Young report, “Oil and Gas Business Risks' which lists the top 10 largest threats to industry organizations” business performance, HSE risks were included for the first time, taking fifth position, with analysts expecting them to climb further. At the core of HSE, Mackay said that any organization operating in hazardous industries such as oil & gas must consider three primary elements; the plant, the people, and the interaction between the people and the plant. He added: “The interaction of people with the plant equals a key area of operating risk representing millions of man hours per year for the typical organization; thousands of people every day routinely intervene in plant operations to do repair and maintenance work. – SG
