In 1990's due to lack of treatment facilities, Oil Based Mud (OBM) drill cuttings generated from drilling operations were dumped in an interim waste storage facility located in prime industrial area. Considering the complex nature of hazardous waste on land, treatment costs and future environmental liability involved, company evaluated number of treatment options and based on techno-economical and legal assessment, selected option of transferring OBM cuttings stored in pits for treatment using Thermal Desorption process. Thermal desorption is recognized as best environmental remediation process that uses heat to increase the volatility of contaminants to remove hydrocarbons and water from the solid matrix. The storage pits were remediated by removal of bottom contaminated soil upto 1% Total petroleum Hydrocarbon (TPH) and HDPE Liners. The treatment of legacy waste including clean-up of the old pits enabled site decommissioning for future industrial expansion in the area. The successful completion of project resulted in considerable economic benefit compared to other competent treatment costs and reduced environmental liability from legacy wastes. The paper presents the methodology adopted for treating OBM legacy waste and clean up of the site confirming to regulatory requirements.

A number of major process industry accidents have involved SIMOPS. Company conducted construction (modifications) activities inside its own plant during the period from November 2017 to May 2018. The Group Risk Acceptability Criteria Guidelines have been defined by Company for the purpose of providing Senior Management with quantitative information about the risk profile during SIMOPS activities and to help them in taking informed decision about the execution strategy to ensure safe operations. A DNV-GL Phast based model of the plant has been used to assess the risk level. Using Group Risk guidelines for On-site personnel based on the FN (Frequency – Number of Fatalities) Curve, Company evaluated and compared several SIMOPS options prior to the actual works to identify the optimal manning level and schedule to ensure the overall Group Risk laid in the ALARP region. The quantitative risk assessment served as a tool to derive the optimal manning levels and shutdown schedule during the SIMOPS activities. The manning levels were controlled through additional administrative measures to ensure its implementation. Moreover, the overall SIMOPS Risk (FN Curve) for the current activity was compared with the risk undertaken during similar previous activities conducted in 2015 and 2016. After the successful completion of the activities, the Risk Assessment was updated to take into consideration the actual manning and schedule inputs for the Pre-Shutdown and Partial Shutdown phases. The actual overall Group Risk (including Pre and Partial Shutdown) was within the Company Group Risk Acceptability Criteria. Additionally, valuable Lessons Learned were identified such as purging (with inert gas), rather than just the depressurization of the equipment in the units during Shutdown, can contribute to a significant risk reduction. This paper presents a novel approach to evaluate SIMOPS risk on personnel using a Group Risk criteria based on FN Curve. This provides an additional re-assurance to stakeholders involved in the activity to take informed decisions based on a quantitative risk analysis rather than a qualitative assessment.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) proposes to develop a Greenfield oil development project in empty quarters along the international borders. The concession area overlaps within Arabian Oryx designated protected and have potential to cause damage to the local bio-diversity. Company conducted extensive environmental studies in advance to assess the impacts and implemented sound engineering practices and ecological conservation mitigation measures to reduce the bio-diversity risk to acceptable level. The paper presents engineering and conservation activities undertaken in Greenfield oil development project that lies within environmentally sensitive area.

ADNOC Onshore is committed to ‘Pursuing No Harm to People or the Community’ by preventing accidents and illnesses across its operations and projects. ADNOC Onshore has established an integrated approach for the management of occupational health hazards and early identification of occupational illnesses. Although vast amount of the published information on health hazards in oil and gas industry is available, the collaboration and cooperation between different parties in big corporations in the management of health hazards, especially in managing occupational illnesses is not much tackled. This paper addresses the synergy established between number of the stakeholders to prevent, identify, investigate, report and manage occupational illnesses within ADNOC Onshore

Company conducted a Fatigue Risk Assessment Study to estimate the fatigue levels of approximately 9000 shifts and the risk of incidents occurring due to operator fatigue. The findings provided an insight into the likelihood of fatigue and risk of errors / incidents occurring for approximately 9000 shifts of control panel operators working on a 4×4, 12-hour, day and night shift pattern. The results presented in this paper are limited to the assessment conducted for day shifts in order to demonstrate the methodology. The study compared different shift patterns in order to identify shifts with higher fatigue levels and identify control measures to reduce operators’ fatigue levels and risk of incidents occurring to As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP). Lowest fatigue and risk levels were identified for the current 4×4 shifts in comparison to 7×7 and 28×28 shift cycles followed by other Companies. In order, to lower the risk to as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP), additional control measures such as training, campaigns, ergonomic assessments, KPIs such as tracking incidents by fatigue levels, etc. are being rolled-out for implementation. This is a novel approach on the combination of a qualitative (IOGP) and quantitative (UK HSE) fatigue risk assessment methodology that has widespread applicability, prospectively in terms of shift design and prevention of incidents caused by fatigue induced impairments and retrospectively for incident investigations. This Fatigue Risk Assessment Study fosters proactive occupational health management by promoting health of employees and preventing / reducing fatigue and thus plays a vital role in the prevention of sickness absenteeism and illnesses associated with chronic fatigue.