Development and Implementation of the Maersk Oil Global Process Safety Training Programme

Maersk Oil is a midsize global oil and gas company operating global exploration and production facilities. In 2007, in response to lessons from the BP-Baker Panel report, Maersk Oil conducted an analysis of the effectiveness of its process safety activities at offshore facilities in its Denmark, Qatar, and United Kingdom operating regions. Maersk Oil used the CCPS Guidelines for Risk Based Process Safety as it framework for evaluating process safety effectiveness.

Two company-wide areas for improvement identified by the PSR were (1) Process Safety Competency from top to bottom in the organization and (2) an integrated PSM system, necessitating training from top-to-bottom to meet awareness and implementation needs. As a result, Maersk Oil adopted RBPS as its structure for managing and improving process safety performance, and developed a company-wide strategy for addressing process safety competency needs - the Global Process Safety Training Programme (GPSTP).

Maersk Oil established the GPSTP to increase awareness, understanding and implementation of process safety principles and practices throughout its global exploration, development, production operations and capital projects. The GPSTP blended some existing local process training initiatives already in place in order to ensure high quality, consistent, efficient delivery. Each course has a formal structure yet, by flexible use of case studies and workshops, the material can be adapted to suit the job role and location of each particular audience group and the courses are delivered locally wherever practicable.

? 20-minute DVD for all company employees and new hires

? 1-day senior management course

? 1- and 2-day engineering, production, maintenance, and drilling courses - on- and offshore

? 4-day Process Safety Specialist course

? 1-day process safety communication course

? 1-day management of change course

These courses have already been developed and delivered multiple times in English and Danish ? other languages will be used as needed. Additional courses involving implementation and improvement of several RBPS elements and tools and techniques are also planned. The initial rollout of the GPSTP will continue through 2010 before settling into an ongoing new hire development and refresher programme.

This paper will present lessons learned from the establishment of this programme.