It goes without saying the current environment in oil and gas is unprecedented. We have seen low oil prices per barrel before in 2009, when global demand slipped because of better fuel efficiency standards and a weakening global economy. However, things feel different this time around, and the whole organization can sense it. Never before have our production and drill teams faced such adversity — the immense pressure to reduce cost and hold the line on safety while simultaneously improving production.
Hidden within these trying times we find ourselves with an opportunity to facilitate real change. You may never have such a captive audience than you find right now in exploration and production. People are looking for answers. “What can we do?” The answer is to change, improve and optimize. Focusing on the fundamentals is not always easy, but it will produce measurable results. Here are some points to focus on.
Safety
Do not let your team slide back on behavioral-based safety management (BBSM) programs. Ensure the programs remain sufficiently staffed and continue to share learning across your sites. To this point, your BBSM program should not miss a beat. Your team has to know leadership is truly committed to safety 100 percent. If your intent on safety is questioned, you have lost focus on safety.
Lead up
We cannot be afraid to communicate what needs to get done to ensure the integrity and safety of our people and assets. Asset managers face difficult decisions every day, but if they do not have the right information to base these decisions on, catastrophe can occur. How many times have you seen headlines of industrial or transportation accidents that had a direct correlation to budgetary pressures? These budgetary concerns are often an underlying factor in accidents, but this is only revealed some time later when the incident report is filed away and the TV cameras have gone home.
Work management
Up to 75 percent of organizations operate under reactive maintenance as a state of normalcy; they don’t know any differently. True hidden value could be right in front of you in unrealized improvements in work management. Well-executed maintenance planning and scheduling can save your team valuable revenue, improve safety and equipment availability, and reduce your material consumption. Turning your focus here will benefit the whole organization to break the bad habits of firefighting. Also, leveraging the latest state-of-the-art tools for work management will ensure proper communication and catalog job plans for future use.
Turnarounds
It has never been more important to focus on proper execution of turnarounds, especially when you consider they tie up our assets for upward of 30 consecutive days, consuming millions of dollars and often meaning complete process shutdown. Turnarounds’ hidden value is in proper planning, work management and execution. In the past, successful turnarounds were always vital to the bottom line, but now they are even more important to the success of the business. Leverage proper project management methodology to refine turnaround execution as an art — starting up on time, on budget and with no safety incidents.
Recognizing oil at $40-$50 per barrel is a new paradigm. Make the appropriate process improvement steps now to help your organization better deal with this change. Your team will be doing something — making a positive change to improve its own situation and ultimately improve the efficiency and safety culture of your organization.
For more information, visit www.nexusglobal.com or contact Dan Towse at (855) 488-0068 or d.towse@nexusglobal.com.
