Africa Business Communities

Harriman Oyofo: Questions Before or During a Crisis? The Businessman’s Choice

If there were to be a serious fire and explosion on your oil & gas installation how would you react or respond? Would you know what to do? Are your people prepared to do what has to be done to minimize the outcome? Is there a plan in place to deal with stuff like that?

Has the plan ever been tested, worked or it is locked up in the boss' office to show who the Top Cat is? Or it is widely publicized for the workforce's clear and unambiguous understanding and effective practical interpretation? Has it ever been discussed at any of the regular meetings onboard?

Does anyone know for sure what the plan says and who's got what and what role in any type of situation? What are the goals of the plan? When last was it updated to reflect current installation status or take into account recent hardware or procedural changes or key personnel replacements? Is there a ‘live’ Management-of-Change Control Procedure in place and who verifies that incorporated changes are ‘as is’?

Who's the focal point or custodian, whose job it is to maintain the Plan in a state of ‘currency’? Now is everyone confident they can do what's expected of them correctly and in time in an emergency and under pressure, confusion, state of panic and probably in pitch darkness? Who has been trained? Who has not been trained? For assigned roles and responsibility, who leads and who follows when there's a meltdown? What does the odd visitor of the day do when it’s all going haywire? Who accounts for him/her and who mentors him/her for the duration of stay and who shows the visitor the designated Escape Route to a temporary shelter or to the disembarkation point in the case of abandonment and who interprets the various audio alarm signals to him/her? Is there an induction program aboard the installation?

Are emergency equipment operable as designed and intended? Have they ever been altered, modified to smoothen over issues of non-availability of spares, replacement parts or equipment change out? Who's aware of such adhoc changes or modifications? Are they of the Approved types or sub Spec? Do they meet mandatory minimum requirements as spelt out in The Mineral (Oils) Safety Regulations of Nigeria and other standards and codes of practice? Is there a plan of maintenance for such equipment and when was the last scheduled Statutory Inspection the installation?  

Is there a service and status log or some other type of record? Where is such record kept or held? Who presides over testing and replenishment as it affects dischargeable portable or handheld lifesaving equipment and other fixtures? And lots more because if you are involved in this highly safety-driven business you MUST place safety of operations on the front burner at all times and that includes gearing up to limit the damage when all defensive barriers against major hazards fail.

The Upstream Oil & Gas Sector business is the life wire of Nigeria and it is generally a business not a few will kill for to get a foothold in the door because of the prospect of all those billions of petrodollars if all goes well from cradle to grave for the investor/financier. It is a capital intensive venture which also means it isn’t for the weak kneed. That is why for decades on end only the International Oil Companies (IOCs) could muster the muscle to risk the venture until very recently with the advent of so-called Marginal Fields. This opened up a welcome window of opportunity for local players to enter the game, which is good for the people, economy, indigenous competence development and homegrown expertise. But unfortunately, some of these local players while prepared to invest hundreds of millions in hardware and people they see nothing wrong in treating safety of operations as an add-on to the ‘real’ business of production; forgetting that the oil and gas business can be a treacherous one if SAFETY is sidestepped or relegated to the background. Historically, all it has taken for many a venture to go down the drain forever is just that one Big Bang. And all the dreams of miles of economic prosperity age long are blown to pieces and brutally terminated.

So if you happen to be of that mindset, these are some crucial questions that you and other stakeholders in your venture might do well to ask yourselves from time to time, well ahead of any so-called accident. There's no point in thinking it will never happen to you, your installation or your operations because you see, sometimes, you only get the one chance to prepare for tomorrow. Don't be caught napping because lip service won’t cut it when that time comes. 

Harriman Oyofo is CEO, Mann Associates Ltd., Nigeria. 

 

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