Woodside’s process safety management competency program
Michael G. Hamblin A *A
Dr Michael G. Hamblin holds a BEng (mechanical) with first class honours and a PhD from the University of Western Australia. Early in his working life he was involved in farming, open cut gold mining and then consulting on risk-based inspection and mechanical integrity to the oil and gas industry. Since joining Woodside as staff in 1997 he has held many roles including engineering, maintenance and production technical and management positions across LNG plants, offshore platforms and dis-connectable FPSOs as well as leading the Operations division risk management, compliance and process safety assurance activities. He was also previously General Manager Quality responsible for Quality Management support across all Projects and Operations at Woodside and subsequently Head of HSE Investigations. Currently Head of Process Safety, Michael oversees Process Safety Management across Woodside globally. |
Abstract
As an operator in the oil and gas industry developing new energy and low-carbon solutions, we recognise the importance of effective Process Safety Management (PSM) to avoid major accident and environmental events due to loss of control of hazardous substances. In support of this, Woodside embarked on an initiative in 2014 to create an integrated approach to PSM. In 2015, an internal team was assembled to review industry best practice and implement the solution with support from Joint Venture Partners’ Subject Matter Experts and DuPont Sustainable Solutions (now dss+). The Energy Institute’s Process Safety Management Framework was selected as it was a comprehensive, multi-sector and open-source framework. This program of work ran for 3 years with a focus on: (1) leadership buy-in and support; (2) incorporating process safety requirements into the integrated Woodside Management System; (3) defining Process Safety Critical Roles and associated competency requirements; (4) developing a training and coaching model; (5) consistently applying process safety risk assessment methodologies; (6) aligning Equipment and Management System Performance Standards; (7) establishing a suite of performance metrics and a governance framework; (8) learning from audits, investigations and others to improve. Now, 10 years on from the start of this initiative and following the merger with BHP’s petroleum business in 2022, we will discuss the PSM competency program element of this work.
Keywords: assessment, coaching, competency, leadership, major hazard industry, management system, process safety management, training.
Dr Michael G. Hamblin holds a BEng (mechanical) with first class honours and a PhD from the University of Western Australia. Early in his working life he was involved in farming, open cut gold mining and then consulting on risk-based inspection and mechanical integrity to the oil and gas industry. Since joining Woodside as staff in 1997 he has held many roles including engineering, maintenance and production technical and management positions across LNG plants, offshore platforms and dis-connectable FPSOs as well as leading the Operations division risk management, compliance and process safety assurance activities. He was also previously General Manager Quality responsible for Quality Management support across all Projects and Operations at Woodside and subsequently Head of HSE Investigations. Currently Head of Process Safety, Michael oversees Process Safety Management across Woodside globally. |
