HSE’s role in operator rounds is to ensure that operators are performing adequately control risks that might affect the health and safety of workers, contractors, or any other members of the public. Read the article for more information.

HSE workplace inspection

In Oil&Gas operations, HSE is performed to make sure that wells are correctly designed, constructed, operated, maintained, and discarded so the contained fluids, fracking fluids or produced gas or water is restrained and safely stored within the well. Any error in this inspection can have highly hazardous implications for safety and environmental protection.

The operators’ role is to generate accurate data for HSE, to properly store the data for easy access, and to share the data with all those involved as soon as they collected it. 

Health and Safety Risks 

In case of a failure of the well structure, for example, an uncontrolled release of hydrocarbons gas can reach a source of ignition causing a fire explosion. The operator needs to assess and establish if the well is designed and constructed properly. By assuring that it is, the risk of a release of fluids is reduced. 

There are many other environmental consequences of a poorly designed well that hasn’t been detected on time, like fracking fluids or produced water mistakenly released to the surroundings. It is the operator’s responsibility to assess and provide the data that certifies the presence or absence of these risks. 

In case of an accident, the HSE’s role is to analyze if further risks are still possible to occur, what exactly went wrong and why involving the operator to further assess how the business can prevent that from happening again. 

Repercussions of not being HSE compliant 

If the businesses have breaches in the health and safety law, mild or major actions can be taken, which might impact the businesses long-term. 

• A minor breach can result in informal advice on what to do next to comply with the law
• In case of a more serious breach, an improved notice will be issued by the inspector with clear instructions on what to do to comply with the law within a specified period. If the business does not agree with the instructions, they can appeal. 
• If significant risks are identified, an inspector can serve a prohibition notice that can stop the activity immediately or after a specified period. The inspector can prohibit any action until the problem has been fixed. 
• Some businesses could receive a prosecution, which usually is backed by the HSE’s Enforcement Policy Statement. This can result in high fees, imprisonment, or both.  

Digitize your HSE program with Smartflow

By adding the HSE inspections for operators to the Smartflow application, operators’ productivity is enhanced helping the HSE inspectors to avoid wasting precious time and resources collecting and retrieving all the data. This way, operators contribute to the accuracy of the HSE inspection making sure no data is missing and the corrective actions are properly documented. 

Enabled by the simple use of the Smartflow app on a tablet you and your operators avoid major error inspections that can have negative repercussions on your business and you eliminate risks that might affect the safety of your employees. Smartflow enables operators to run regular checks on whether the set procedures work properly, easing your and your workers’ efforts.

With Smartflow we ensure the HSE program is fully compliant empowering the HSE department to focus on identifying trends and concentrate on results instead of doing time-consuming administrative work.

Digitizing the HSE program will result in reduced costs, improved HSE practice, and better qualification for any future implementations. When you digitize HSE with Smartflow you get access to a comprehensive suite of the HSE functions and all the observations in one place helping you get started with the right action points.

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