Abstract

This work presents the main elements of health, safety, and environmental management programs in offshore oil and gas drilling and production industry.These elements are:
i. management commitment,
ii. accountability,
iii. employee involvement,
iv. hazard identification and control,
v. incident/accident analysis, vi. training, and
vi. program evaluation and continual feedback and health, safety, and environmental performance improvement.
The present work is an attempt to answer the difficult question, “ how to achieve sustainable development while drilling and producing oil and gas from offshore areas?It summarizes the importance and benefits of the development and implementation of health, safety and environmental management systems (HSEMS) for offshore oil and gas drilling and production companies. It focuses on hazards and effects management process (HEMP) as a tool for preparing of simple, measurable, achievable, realistic, dynamic and time based HSEMS. HEMP steps are
i. identify hazards,
ii. assess the risk,
iii. control the threats,
iv. recover the consequences if needed, and. document and communicate the results. It delineates the components of an effective HSEMS and explains how to simply use and implement the system by the company employees especially with regard to the hazards and effects register and the HSEMS activities catalogues. The present work also highlights the potential use of HSEMS and its integration with health, safety, and environmental impact assessment studies (HSEIA), asset integrity management systems (AIMS), health, safety, and environmental monitoring and auditing, and environmental management systems (EMS) in achieving business continuity, continual health, safety and environmental performance improvement, and sustainable development in offshore oil drilling and production industry.

Keywords: Hazards and effects management process (HEMP); Health; Safety and environmental management system (HSEMS); Offshore oil and gas industry; Sustainable development