Evolution of process safety performance measurement, reporting and management
Binu Baby A * , Chris Sproston A , Huw Jones A and Marc Ocampo Ramos AA Beach Energy, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
The APPEA Journal 63 264-272 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ22182
Submitted: 19 December 2022 Accepted: 13 February 2023 Published: 11 May 2023
© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of APPEA.
Abstract
Beach Energy Limited (referred as Beach Energy or Beach) is an ASX-listed exploration and production company headquartered in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1961, Beach produces oil and gas from five onshore and offshore basins across Australia and New Zealand. During its most recent growth phase, Beach added a number of assets to its portfolio that were originally developed and operated by companies with different management systems, standards and reporting requirements. Over the past 5 years Beach has been – and continues to be – on a journey of learning, developing and refining its systems and standards for reporting process safety performance and integrating these within a ‘one Beach’ philosophy. This paper describes the current stage of this evolution in measuring, reporting and managing process safety performance at Beach, presents some of the key learnings to date, in addition to outlining the next steps Beach is taking on this journey. The paper covers the following: (1) experience with IOGP RP 456 Tier KPI model and current main KPIs in use; (2) application to projects, drilling campaigns and operating assets; (3) challenges in gathering data and event classification; (4) importance of getting safety critical equipment selection right; (5) communicating large and complex KPIs to a varied audience; (6) learning and improving process safety performance and systems based on KPIs; (7) new approaches to reporting health of process safety barriers aligned to IOGP RP544 categories using simplified bowtie Major Accident Event dashboards; and (8) integration of process safety management within the Beach Operations Excellence Management System. The key conclusions are that measuring process safety performance requires dedicated effort and consensus across all stakeholders on the most appropriate way to measure performance. Reporting needs a positive and collaborative culture to have the right impact. Managing performance must be based on objective evidence and careful analysis of the data. Achieving effective and efficient process safety measurement, reporting and management is a multi-year journey of continual improvement.
Keywords: IOGP RP #456, IOGP RP544, key performance indicators, process safety, process safety metrics, PSM reporting, safety barrier performance, safety critical controls, safety critical equipment.
Binu Baby completed a Bachelor in Chemical Engineering from Kerala University (India) and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Leicester. He is a member of IChemE, the Institution of Engineers Australia and a Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland. Binu is currently working for Beach Energy Ltd as a Senior Staff Process Engineer, primarily responsible for TA-1 Process Engineering functions within Beach business units. Prior to Beach Energy, Binu held senior technical engineering roles for several major national and international oil and gas operators and engineering consultancies including Santos, Worley Parsons, Bechtel, ConocoPhillips, Kuwait Oil Company and Petronas/Dow Chemicals Joint Venture. |
Chris Sproston completed a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering at Loughborough University (UK) and holds Chartered Engineer status with Engineers Australia. He currently works at Beach Energy as Manager for the Operations Excellence Management System and has a passion for creating purposeful risk visualisation. Prior to joining Beach, Chris worked at Santos in several different roles related to maintenance, reliability, risk and process safety. Outside of oil and gas, Chris has worked across the entire asset lifecycle in other industry sectors including utilities, defence, pharmaceuticals and manufacturing. |
Huw Jones completed a BEng in Chemical Engineering at Imperial College, London. He is an Associate Member of IChemE. He is Head of Technical Assurance at Beach Energy. Prior to this he worked for Origin Energy LPG division as Process Safety Manager. He has previously worked on several major oil and gas development projects for ExxonMobil and Agip in process safety/HSE roles. He has provided HSE and process safety advice to a number of regulators, oil and gas companies and other industry sectors, including UK HSE, UK Environment Agency, Victorian WorkSafe, South Australia Workplace Services, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Pollution, BP, Shell, Anglo American, Rio Tinto and Lend Lease. |
Marc Ocampo Ramos CEng, FIChemE, RPEQ, CMEngNZ completed his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering degree from the University of the Philippines – Diliman, and his Master of Management (with Distinction) in Financial Economics from Massey University, New Zealand. Marc is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of IChemE. He currently serves as Beach Energy’s Senior Staff Process Safety Engineer, primarily responsible and accountable for ensuring that process safety risks are identified and effectively managed throughout the business. Marc has years of experience in the upstream, midstream and downstream oil and gas industry working in South East Asia, the Middle East and Oceania. |
References
IOGP-544 (2016) Standardization of barrier definitions - Report. (International Association of Oil and Gas Producers) Available at https://www.iogp.org/bookstore/product/standardization-of-barrier-definitions/IOGP RP456 (2011) Process safety – recommended practice on KPIs - Recommended Practice. (International Association of Oil and Gas Producers) Available at https://www.iogp.org/bookstore/product/process-safety-recommended-practice-on-key-performance-indicators/
