Abstract South Arne is an oil and gas producing installation in the Danish sector of the North Sea. Its HSE management system was certified to ISO 14001 (environment) in 2002 and OHSAS 18001 (health and safety) certified in 2005. It was the first certified offshore production facility in Denmark. The purpose of adjusting the management system in line with the requirements of the standards was to ensure a structured system which can be used for facilitating continual improvement in HSE performance.
Various studies have discussed whether certification of HSE management systems leads to improved HSE performance. Two keys to success include development of a good safety culture and clear and convincing management commitment. An important part of a good safety culture is a good reporting culture with respect to HSE incidents. Clear management commitment is indicated by prompt response to actions identified to prevent recurrence of incidents as well as ensuring that key contractors are included in the facility HSE management system.
South Arne originally used incident severity rating scores as a measure of HSE performance, based on a relatively complicated rating matrix. It was not easily understood and provided poor consistency of ratings. Therefore, a revised matrix was developed based on feedback from users and it appears to be more easily understood and results in more consistent ratings.
HSE target setting and improvement plans are fundamental in both the ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 standards. The difficulties in independently measuring health and safety performance are discussed. In addition, both the inherent changes caused by maturing of the fields and the problems in weighting different types of environmental impacts makes it difficult to objectively define improvement in environmental performance.
The experience is that certification of HSE management systems helps operators to manage their HSE matters in a structured way. The certification process in itself sets focus on HSE in the organisation. Offshore and onshore management, employees and contractors work together towards a common goal. Therefore, both the preparations for certification and the resulting improved HSE management system have a positive effect internally and as a signal of HSE commitment towards external stakeholders.
Introduction South Arne received ISO 14001 certification of its environmental management system in October 2002 (Ref. /1/). In April 2005, the health and safety management system was OHSAS 18001 certified. This paper describes the structure and the functioning of the integrated HSE management system.
Certification in itself doesn't necessary lead to improved HSE performance (e.g. Refs. /2/, /3/). Certification provides 3th party assurance that systems are in place, procedures are documented, environmental aspects and health and safety hazards are identified etc. In addition, the organisation commits itself to set targets and to strive for continual improvement. But the key to actually improving performance is the development of a positive HSE culture throughout the organisation, from top management to the people actually carrying out the physical work. It is especially critical to involve contractors and subcontractors in this process as more activities are outsourced.
In order to document continuous improvement in HSE performance, it is necessary to define HSE indicators which give objective metrics of HSE performance. With respect to environmental performance, improvement within a single parameter (e.g. CO2 emissions) is rather straightforward to define. But when different aspects are compared (e.g emission of air pollutants with local, regional and global impact, respectively), weighting of these against each other with respect to environmental significance is more difficult (Ref. /4/). It becomes even more complicated when comparisons between emissions to air and discharges to sea are carried out (Ref. /5/). Such evaluations are relevant e.g. when considering which method of disposal of drill cuttings and drilling mud has the least environmental impact (Ref. /6/).