Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are lightweight, low-cost aircraft platforms operated from the ground which can be outfitted with imaging or non-imaging payloads (‘drones’). UAS offer Health Environment and Safety (HES) professionals a promising opportunity to reduce health, environmental and safety risks by keeping people out of harm's way, reducing exposure to potential health hazards, and for performing non-invasive surveys of ecological features. A certified operator and unit were retained in the field full-time to support a greenfield gas development in a rugged, remote area. Ready access to a UAS provided timely data to inform field decision making. "If in doubt, put the drone up" became a common phrase in the field, affirming the value of UAS imagery as an information-providing and risk-mitigating tool during site development. UAS collected the data and information that would have otherwise put people on aerial work platforms, in helicopters or on the ground in remote, rugged locations, avoiding thousands of safety-critical workforce hours. UAS were employed to perform reconnaissance, monitoring and data collection for a wide range of HES applications: Safety: reconnaissance of potential high-consequence situations (landslides, road washouts, avalanche assessment) and access to difficult locations (stack and powerline inspections, landfill slope stability assessment)Environmental: non-invasive environmental monitoring of wildlife (raptor nests, large mammals) and environmental features (marine eelgrass, forest)Health: hazardous materials (hazmat) surveys of legacy facilities to support decommissioning (asbestos-containing roofing materials) In addition to enabling information-based decision-making in the field by providing real-time imagery, UAS visually conveyed information that was useful for communicating with stakeholders and regulators. This paper will demonstrate that onsite UAS can provide timely, cost-effective information and reduce HES risks in the field by replacing the human element for some safety-critical tasks.

At the time of acquiring a remote greenfield gas development in 2013, the project's total recordable injury rate (TRIR) for the site development phase was 2.0. Though this rate was considered competitive for the industry sectors in which the local contractors generally worked, it was considerably higher than that prevailing in the oil and gas industry and did not meet corporate expectations. Several potentially serious near misses provided additional impetus for action. Six staged programs were initiated to enhance the overall safety culture and instill human performance principles: Tenets of Operation; Stop Work Authority; Incident Free Operation; Managing Safe Work; Contractor Health, Environment and Safety (HES) management; and Fatality Prevention. An overall safety-improvement roadmap guided the sequencing and integration of the programs to complement one another and avoid information overload. The programs were deployed through orientations, field engagements, mentorship, workshops, safety meetings and leadership engagements. Clear accountability and behavioral expectations were communicated and reinforced. Fieldwork was designed to avoid known construction error traps and incident investigations were required to elucidate not only why an incident occurred by how the situation evolved to the point that the condition existed. Over time safety metrics were re-focused from TRIR to evidence of program implementation and safeguard verification to ensure the heightened focus did not drive reporting underground. After deployment of the programs the array of contractors was reduced to eliminate those where progress could not be demonstrated. The project experienced progressive improvement in safety performance and a steadily declining TRIR. The number, frequency rate and severity of incidents decreased in each successive year. By the end of 2017 the project had accumulated 7 million work hours without any serious injuries, and without incurring a recordable event in 2017. In addition, site productivity improvements tracked with improved safety performance, after accounting for the initial implementation period. A notable culture shift was also apparent in the local communities: the contractors began applying the programs and best practices they learned while working on the project to other, non-oil and gas projects. This shift demonstrated how a strong safety culture could lead to world-class performance and benefit local communities for years to come.

Bioremediation is often the preferred method for remediating crude oil impacted soil at exploration and production facilities because it is proven, cost-effective, robust, and performed on location. However, not all crude oil impacted soils are amenable. A four-step protocol, including predictive equations, has been developed to assess the feasibility of ex-situ bioremediation for crude oil impacted soil, enabling site managers to potentially forego expensive and time consuming biotreatability trials. First, representative samples are tested for conditions which could preclude bioremediation or necessitate pre-treatment, special management, or upfront lab treatability studies. The source crude and soil-based residual hydrocarbons are geochemically characterized to determine the inherent biodegradability of the crude and amount of hydrocarbon that has already been passively biodegraded or removed by an abiotic mechanism such as volatilization. A database of first-order rate constants characterizes the biotreatment kinetics. Compositional and rate data are used to estimate the duration of treatment and endpoint achievable by ex- situ bioremediation in steps 2 and 3. The predictive endpoint equation was derived from first principles, empirically corrected using field-scale data, and validated at full-scale for source condensates and crude oils ranging from 14° to 45° API. The degree of validation suggests the predictive equations are suitable for making decisions on bioremediation potential, thereby eliminating the need for lab and pilot treatability studies in many cases. If the duration and extent of removal predicted would fulfill the project's objectives, the final configuration (land treatment or composting) is selected in step 4 considering schedule and spatial constraints and the properties the bioremediated soil needs to possess to support the designated end use. As with any predictive methodology the practitioner must exercise caution to identify any confounding factors which could constrain the rate or degree of removal. This paper will present the biotreatability protocol, predictive equations for inferring bioremediation feasibility from compositional information, and other lessons learned from crude oil bioremediation projects performed over the last 20 years.

Facility construction constitutes the peak waste generating event in a gas facility's life, potentially creating over 100,000 tons of solid waste. Three onshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) construction projects and 1 onshore gas-to-liquids (GTL) facility were analyzed to derive solid waste generation rates, identify successful minimization practices, and document critical waste infrastructure. The four globally-distributed projects cover the full spectrum of construction methods: fully stick-built to maximum-modular. The stick-built projects generated more waste on plot per production train than the modular ones. Displaying a characteristic bell curve shape, waste quantities typically peaked about halfway through construction, corresponding to the period of maximum onsite activity. Seven categories comprised 90% of the solid waste generated for all four projects: food; wood; plastic; paper/ cardboard; concrete/ cement; metal; and mixed (un-segregated) garbage. These seven waste categories comprised the focus of waste minimization efforts and infrastructure provisions (waste handling equipment). The onsite construction waste handling facility was universally found to be the cornerstone of the construction waste management system. Investing in design and outfitting it with essential equipment returned dividends by minimizing the quantities sent offsite and ensured construction was not interrupted by waste accumulation. A subset of waste handling equipment is recommended for gas facilities constructed in areas supported by an established commercial waste management network. The dataset from these projects was used to forecast waste types and quantities for a remote Greenfield LNG project and to inform the design of the Construction Waste Handling Facility. Incorporating the learnings and best practices from these projects forecast an industry-leading landfill diversion rate of 92% for the new project.

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