Effective management of process safety risks while delivering flawless operational execution in an evolving oil and gas industry requires innovative applications of digital technology. Augmented Reality (AR) or Mixed Reality (MR) technologies have tremendous potential to meet these challenges by providing realworld digital landscape to intuitively interact with data, train personnel, and mitigate process safety risks. However, a major challenge with AR and MR technologies is the limited processing power and capability of available hardware. A cloud-based software platform can overcome these computational limitations of AR and MR devices, enabling interaction with significantly more complex 3D content. Additionally, enabling real-time connectivity across different hardware architectures – such as smartphones and Microsoft HoloLens devices – creating powerful new capability for remote collaboration. This unique software platform transforms consumer-grade AR and MR devices into powerful industrial tools for oil and gas applications. This paper will illustrate the application of AR/MR technology in critical risk management including the adoption of AR/MR technology for process safety operational readiness and response capability to critical risk associated with major accident hazards. Enhanced AR/MR provides full-scale virtual digital landscapes that enable practical demonstration of crew resource management including the evaluation of collaborative human performance in teamwork activities. Using gamified AR/MR techniques, allows for multiple outcomes based on user inputs to test decision-making and eliminate human errors. These enabling technologies can drive significant improvements in process safety risk management while increasing operational efficiencies across the oil and gas industry.

The oil and gas industry has increased its efforts in preventing and mitigating risks associated with loss of well control and loss of primary containment. Initiatives have primarily focused on increasing the awareness and education of field and operations personnel. The foundation of this strategy rests on the belief that increased awareness of threats, risks and enhanced training will lower well control risks and eliminate well control events. Despite this renewed focus, industry data show that well control events and high-potential near-misses have not diminished. In addition, findings from incident investigations point to human-factor-related causes, including lack of procedural discipline, non-compliance errors and cognitive errors. For organizations to deliver flawless execution at the wellsite while effectively preventing or mitigating well control or loss of primary containment events, a robust closed-loop methodology that leverages smart risk detection and mitigation systems must be employed. This paper analyzes the critical process safety requirements in the industry and provides solutions centered on a smart integrated digital platform. This platform, built on technologies such as precursor sensor and alarming technologies, barrier and equipment health monitoring, wellsite performance analysis, sophisticated workflow management and video and audio analytics, will effectively coordinate and manage these dynamic risks. A data management workflow that uses automated risk assessments, threat detection, structured and nonstructured contextual data will minimize the impacts of human factors and drive operational efficiency, process assurance, reduction in nonproductive time and project cost. These enhancements will enable global organizations to proactively drive effective risk management of well control and loss of primary containment events. This paper will explore the application, methodology and value of this smart, integrated digital platform through the presentation of case studies.

As the oil and gas industry undergoes a digital transformation, the massive volume and variety of information being ingested at increasing velocity necessitates new methods of data interaction for decision making. Additionally, effective management of safety risks and flawless operational execution in an evolving oil and gas industry requires innovative applications of digital technology. By superimposing contextually-relevant digital information on the physical world, augmented and mixed reality (AR/MR) technologies have tremendous potential to meet these challenges by providing a more intuitive way to interact with data, train personnel, and ensure process safety. However, a major challenge with AR and MR technologies is the limited processing power and capability of available hardware. A cloud-based software platform has been developed to overcome computational limitations of AR and MR devices, enabling interaction with significantly more complex 3D content. Additionally, this enhanced AR/MR software platform enables real-time connectivity across different hardware architectures – such as smartphones and Microsoft HoloLens devices – creating powerful new capability for remote collaboration. This unique software platform transforms consumer-grade AR and MR devices into powerful industrial tools useful for a variety of oil and gas applications. This study will illustrate the functionality enhancements provided by this software platform and how it greatly increases the application potential of AR and MR, including a case study on adoption of this enhanced AR/MR technology for process safety using threat response drill (TRD) scenarios. Enhanced AR and MR provides full-scale virtual TRD scenarios that enable practical demonstration of operational readiness and proactive risk management. Crew response capability and human performance can be collaboratively evaluated with gamified AR/MR techniques, allowing for multiple outcomes based on user inputs through multiple interaction modalities, enabled by the underlying software platform. Enhanced AR/MR enabled by this software platform can drive major improvements in process safety and ultimately help reduce CAPEX, increase efficiency, and mitigate risk across the oil and gas industry.

For a number of years we have known the positive impact on human performance and the retention of knowledge, skills, and ability from training conducted in a practical event-based immersive simulator. This paper demonstrates an innovative approach, without a simulator, that is designed to achieve similar levels of learning outcomes. Technical learning and Crew Resource Management (CRM) are analytically mixed to drive participation and engagement to achieve similar target levels of higher learning retention and on-the-job performance enhancements. This paper proceeds from the collaboration efforts between Baker Hughes, a GE company and Maersk Training. The result was a classroom-based course for newly appointed wellsite leaders responsible for managing and overseeing barrier management activities to prevent or mitigate process safety risks associated with loss of primary containment or loss of well control. Wellsite leaders are entrusted to ensure that critical operations and dynamic changes between services such as mud engineering, cementing, wireline, wellbore intervention, completion, and drilling operation do not result in a catastrophic safety or environment consequence. The leaders in these roles must possess technical knowledge on risk assessments and barrier management and extensive skill in CRM to maintain effective oversight and surveillance of the operations while engaging with multidisciplinary personnel and vendors delivering complex products and services at the wellsite. The paper elaborates on the training module design and the delivery of those modules in a dynamic switching mode. This delivery consistently maintained the linkages and interconnections between CRM, process safety, and barrier management and resulted in an effective event-based training outcome comparable to simulators.

Historically, our industry has placed a biased emphasis on well control standards, associated certifications, and training exercises for drilling operations. While these requirements served the industry well, they were limited in scope and had a critical flaw: they assumed the threat would be recognized, effectively communicated, and eventually trigger the appropriate timely response. These directives were based on the prevailing belief that we only need to focus on testing and examining the appropriate response to well control events. Well intervention adopted this methodology and attempted to assimilate these practices in wellsite activities. The adoption, while it was useful, lacked global scope and emphasis on location-specific threat response drills that were based on well intervention activities. In addition, wellsite training tended to focus exclusively on scenarios for a single operation, and had no emphasis on escalation dealing with coiled tubing, or snubbing, or wireline. The lack of integrated, specific well control threat-response drills was recognized as a gap in our ability to manage critical risks at the wellsite associated with loss of well control or loss of primary containment. To address this gap, threat-response drills were created following a 4D decision cycle methodology: Detect, Diagnose, Decide and Do. The location personnel were compelled to meet the following objectives: demonstrate the ability to diagnose and assess critical threats, select the appropriate response, follow the correct actions, and demonstrate the required communication protocols. Each threat exercise had numerous opportunities to escalate the exercise with impaired equipment and/or personnel. As necessary, this escalation could lead to passing the well containment execution from one vendor group to another. A comprehensive facilitator guide provided background notes, advice on after-action review, and details of each threat stage and the required actions for the personnel who were expected to respond. Initial responses were created for three coiled tubing scenarios, with others planned for future updates. The project background and initial scenarios were presented to operations and HS&E personnel from the service provider and operator. Initial roll-out and drills were conducted over the summer. To ensure a close match to each geographic area, the exercises required local customization. Pilot testing results showed a strong support for this approach: Customers and frontline operations personnel valued the specificity of the threat-response drills and customization that can easily translate into local specific services and operating conditions. The commercial value of demonstrating operational readiness and proactive risk management cannot be understated in these difficult markets where industry and clients demand safety assurance. This paper details the general methodology used to create each threat response and the method of determining threat escalations. Project roll-out and initial field trials and feedback are provided. Examples of various drills are incorporated in the paper. The practices in the paper can provide greater industry exposure for this type of practical drill scenario. These threat-response drills expand and enhance wellsite risk mitigation by improving threat identification and tested responses to contain or mitigate consequences. Repeated use of this type of threat-response drill can drive safety assurance and improve our HS&E results.