Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1984. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-108).

The principal objective of this study was to investigate process simulation and optimization of an existing offshore natural gas process which needed profitability improvements. Optimization was done using two alternative approaches: a global approach (response surface methodology) or a local approach (successive quadratic programming). The global approach was characterized by process performance at selected case study points throughout the feasible operating region and made use of global information, while the local approach was characterized by numerical iterative computation driven by local information in the neighborhood of a single point in the design space. A Box-Behnken design was used as a second-order response surface design for the estimation of correlation between process simulator design variables and an economic objective function, and the estimation model was then optimized. In the local approach, a process simulator (ASPEN PLUS) with optimization capabilities was used. From the investigation, three major design variables were identified that had significant effects on the objective function of maximum product sales value. The three variables were: the compression ratio of the Production Compressor, the heat duty of the Gas/Gas Exchanger, and the compression ratio of the Expander. The results indicated that profitability of the offshore natural gas process could be improved by greatly (about 60%) increasing the production of raw condensate, even though this meant slightly lower (about 4%) sales of natural gas as a main product. The improvement found, however, was only 7% when the design variables were limited by currently installed equipment. The global approach was found to converge more consistently because once the global quadratic model was calculated, convergence to its unique optimum was simple. On the other hand the local approach had non-unique termination points due to the small effects of some design variables. The global approach provided better engineering insight since the effects of each design variable could be easily calculated from the quadratic model. However, the global approach was less efficient in terms of engineering manpower because of the time required to identify the quadratic model. / Graduation date: 1995

Safety leadership is emerging as a key factor in determining organisational safety performance at all levels of management (Zohar, 2002; 2004). This PhD addresses the relevance and challenges of conducting safety interventions in the workplace. It started out as an evaluation of a safety leadership course in the oil and gas industry, and moved on to conceptualise the underlying difficulties inherent in those conversations and the success factors that help supervisors and managers overcome these challenges. Study One and Study Two focused on attitudes and attitude changes in course participants with increasing focus on attitudes towards safety interventions. Utilising questionnaires designed according to the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1985) and Bandura’s concept of selfefficacy and analysing qualitative data, the studies showed that participants’ general safety attitudes, attitudes towards rules and procedures, control beliefs, intentions to perform safety interventions, general self-efficacy and self-efficacy to perform safety interventions would increase from before to after the course. Study Three and Study Four aimed to evaluate participants’ behavioural changes with regard to performing safety interventions. A behavioural rating tool and statistical analysis were utilised in the third study. Results obtained showed a skill gap in managers’ and supervisors’ ability to perform safety interventions 6-12 months after they had attended the course. This skill gap indicated that – despite acknowledgement of the importance of safety interventions and participants’ intentions to frequently perform safety interventions – people did not perform these conversations at the worksite as often as they had intended. Results also indicated that two particular communication strategies, the use of open ended questions and the creation of ‘what-if’ scenarios, were crucial for a positive safety conversation outcome. In the fourth study, discourse analysis techniques and the application of a derived framework on social interaction allowed for a further understanding of the success factors and challenges of safety interventions. Results obtained emphasised particular face keeping strategies that were associated with the successful performance of safety interventions. However, strategies which, once applied, would lead to the failure of a conversation could also be extracted. It could also be shown that the conversation ‘scheme’ that had been taught during the training course was not fit for purpose as it did not enable participants to successfully conduct safety interventions without upsetting their conversation partner.

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This thesis examines the methods used by high reliability industries to collect incident data regarding the human factors causes and uses this information to develop a tool for the investigation of accidents and incidents. The focus is the UK offshore oil gas industry, where attention to human behaviour in incident analysis has increased in importance with the reliability of technology. It is proposed that such analysis is also applicable to other high reliability organisations. Reviews of accident causation research, incident reporting and investigation systems, as well as safety climate studies, have provided the basis for three empirical studies. Two reporting forms and one investigation tool have been designed and tested in the offshore oil and gas industry. The first reporting form contains 11 open questions to be completed by the witnesses to incidents. The second reporting form contains 166 questions, which provide more cues for the users to describe the possible causes of the incident. The human factors investigation tool (HFIT) is a more complex method of collecting incident data and contains a total of 391 questions to aid investigators determine the contributing factors to the incident. This thesis provides some evidence that the two reporting forms and the investigation tool have improved the investigation of the human factors causes of incidents over and above the oil companies existing systems. This was accomplished by applying psychological theories and methods successfully used in other industries to develop the reporting and investigation system which focus mainly on the human and organisational causes of accidents. HFIT combines aspects from a number of investigation tools currently used in other industries, such as processes for investigation and causal codes. In addition, the question set of categories, elements, sub-elements and item codes has been developed as a computer programme which is a unique system for incident investigation. The system includes an original set of team working and safety culture questions based on current research in these areas.

The Offshore Installation Manager (OIM) performs one of the most complex and critical roles within the UK offshore oil and gas industry. The OIM is responsible for the safety and well-being of all persons onboard and within 500m of the installation whilst operating within an isolated and hostile physical environment within the UK Continental Shelf . The persistence of major incidents in the industry highlights the importance of OIM competence in controlling emergencies, consequently the research aims to contribute to new knowledge by identifying the potential barriers that can prevent the effective competence assessment of an OIM in this situation. The research utilised Engeström's Expanded Activity Theory to establish the holistic socio-cultural environment within which the OIM operates during emergency response to establish the key documents relevant to the role and associated competence assessment. The documents were then analysed using a critical hermeneutic approach based on the work of Phillips and Brown (1993) to determine the potential barriers to effective competence assessment of the OIM in controlling emergencies. The research is interdisciplinary and aims to develop new knowledge within the domains of safety engineering and law. The output from the research will assist industry Duty Holders improve the competence assessment of their appointed OIMs and allow safety engineers to consider the probable competence of an OIM at a given point in time. The research has identified 8 potential barriers to the effective competence assessment of OIMs in controlling emergencies. These are associated with the multiple definitions of competence that exist; the predominance of competence assessment by observation; the lack of definitive competence requirements for trainers and assessors; the complexity in UK legislation and the interaction between UK Government departments; concerns associated with goal setting legislation when applied to competence assessment and the lack of statutory competence requirements for OIMs in controlling emergencies; the lack of ownership of OIM competence and competence assessment; and the lack of regulation and independent audit of the competence assessment process of OIMs in controlling emergencies.

This thesis explores two themes on upstream oil and gas economics centred on offshore safety economics and third party access to infrastructure in the United Kingdom Continental Shelf (UKCS). The first part involves work that explores the nexus between the offshore safety regime and safety outcomes. It contributes to the literature by explaining the post-Piper Alpha safety regime changes with regard to our understanding, framing of safety decision making and benchmarking of safety outcomes. The second part investigates third party access to infrastructure issues in the UKCS. It contributes to our understanding of how different third party access to infrastructure arrangements can be utilised to maximise economic recovery. Each chapter addresses fundamental issues of North Sea oil and gas operations through the application of microeconomic, operations research and econometric methods within a formal analytical framework. The results provide insights into decision-making complexities in the upstream oil and gas industry by guiding policy makers. Specifically, part one of this thesis looks at safety performance in the post-Piper Alpha era in the UKCS. It investigates ways through which a more comprehensive and theoretically informed framework can be used to understand the linkages that arise when dealing with safety regulations and their impacts on the offshore oil and gas industry. Our objective is to empirically ascertain the determinants of offshore hydrocarbon releases within the context of the post-Piper Alpha offshore safety regime regulations. This is done using an observed number of hydrocarbon releases linked to a population denominator data of the number of the installations present in the UKCS. Three research problems are examined: (1) the transmission mechanisms through which safety regulation influence firm and industry productivity; (2) the assessment methods utilised in measuring and benchmarking regulatory outcomes in terms of safety compliance; and (3) the extent to which safety policies contribute to enhancing safety levels in the oil and gas industry. We initially review the background and literature on offshore safety with a particular emphasis on the UKCS in Chapter 2. We also frame our research questions and underlying hypothesis here. In Chapter 3, we present our underlying empirical framework and model specifications followed by some descriptive analysis of the hydrocarbon releases data. The results of the various econometric model specifications are analysed in Chapter 4. The second part of the thesis explores how possible different ownership patterns (including access arrangements) might affect the economic viability of exploiting remaining resources in the UKCS. This section attempts to answer two critical questions namely how the impact of the separation of infrastructure and field ownership affect economic recovery and the impact of taxation on field and hub economics in a mature oil basin. We explore how possible different ownership structures and access arrangements might affect the economic viability of remaining UKCS reserves. We apply a mixed integer programming (MIP) model to field data from the Northern North Sea. Specifically, we examine how the unbundling of infrastructure and field ownership, as well as different cost sharing and tariff arrangements, affect the long-term economics of hubs and their user fields. Regarding the layout, Chapter 5 talks about access to infrastructure issues in the UKCS namely the regulatory framework for access and related legislation. It leads to the development of a conceptual framework and model based upon which extractions are made to capture the various potential market outcomes. In Chapter 6, the empirical model, which utilises the mixed integer programming approach, is discussed. The data sources and characterization, as well as the presentation of the results from the Baseline Model, are presented in Chapter 7. The analysis of the Tax Model and the Cost Sharing plus Tax Model including structure and simulated results with underlying assumptions are presented in Chapter 8. Finally, Chapter 9 leads to a thorough discussion of the results followed by conclusions and policy recommendations.

Thesis (M. S.)--Texas A&M University, 2004. / Vita. Abstract. "Major Subject: Petroleum Engineering" Includes bibliographical references.