How can remote operations become more resilient?

Siri Andersen - DNV Energy

Stig Ole Johnsen - SINTEF

Agenda

• Scope and Method

• Important findings

• Proposed elements in methodology

• Further work

Increasing use of remote operations in the oil and gas industry

•Tasks and functions moved onshore, reduced staff offshore

Focus on cooperation and collaboration:

-Within and between control rooms-Between central control room and outside operations

Ambition

• Gather experience across different industries

• Identify common challenges and common best practice related to remote monitoring and remote operations

• Establish results to be used in methodologies in the oil and gas industry in Norway

Method

• Qualitative study– Interviews– Literature review

– Theory and practice of High Reliability Organisations (HRO) and resilience engineering.

Relevant standards and methods• Key standards and methods related to

Human Factors in Control Centres: – ”ISO 11064 Ergonomic design of control centres ”– CRIOP – Validation and verification of operation of

control centresISO 11064 - Ergonomic design of control centres

A. Clarification

B. Analysis

C. Conceptual design

D. Detailed Design

E. Operation and Feedback

CRIOP verification andvalidation

Experiences from remote operations in many industries

• The Aviation Industry

• The Railway Industry

• Telemedicine

• The Oil and Gas Industry

• AMK (Acute Medical Communication)

?

Common findings across the industry (1)

• Lack of redundancy in technical and/or human resources– E.g. people not present to support each other or to spot

wrong-doing

• Poor ability to spontaneously adapt to unexpected and demanding situations

• The remote system did not warn adequately– E.g. difficult to spot warning signals or the extent of

them.

Common findings across the industry (2)• Lack of routines and systems for information

sharing– E.g. only one communication line

• High work load and fatigue are important causes of human errors and unwanted incidents

• Good procedures for education and enough time to gain experience are often lacking– E.g. When new systems are used or rare tasks

performed

• Poor change management

Observations from the Oil and Gas industry

• Focus on technology, not much focus on man and organisation (MTO) – E.g. work processes, worker involvement across companies

and training in cooperation lacking

• HRO weaknesses:– little focus on integrating personnel and experts in different

locations, fragmented knowledge related to safety and security in the different locations.

• Validation and verification of CCR deign related to ISO 11064 (Ref www.criop.sintef.no)

– CRIOP Methodology often not used in the aspects of cooperation in remote operations. – also often performed too late in projects

Essential to develop work processes early and in parallel with technology!

• A lesson learned at the oil fields which have already implemented remote operation/remote monitoring

– Still: Little focus on developing work processes early and across locations. And little training in advance

Best practice / results to be used in methodologies

Elements suggested (1)

1. Make safety and resilience a goal from the start!

2. The implementation process of remote operations should take into accord:• Technology • Organisation • Work processes

• Good co-opting processes (ref Kotter).

3. Function allocation between offshore and onshore focusing on safety – based on CORD

Elements suggested (2)

4. CRIOP should be used• Early in the design process. • To perform scenarios involving geographical spread

control rooms (e.g. safety offshore and onshore)

5. Establish routines and systems to share information and incidents.

6. Support the operators’ ability to be flexible and to improvise.• By: Understanding cross disciplines, resources

needed and other peoples tasks

7. Focus on training.

Elements suggested (3)

9. Rich and diverse alarms should be utilized.

10. Establish a competence network in operations’

11. Avoid too high work load and fatigue

12. Develop work processes early and in parallel with technological solutions.

13. Establish redundancy in technical systems and/or human resources• Also: ensure a culture that encourages use of human

redundancy!

Further work/research

• We are going to explore the suggestions in research projects in the Norwegian petroleum industry from 2006

Thank you for your attention!

Questions?

Further information:

Siri.Andersen@dnv.com

Stig.O.Johnsen@sintef.no