Critical Analysis Of The Effect In Health, Safety And Enviroment Caused By Downstream Sector In Oil And Gas Production In The Netherland

1.1  Introduction

In petroleum and oil industry downstream sector is the refining and processing of crude petroleum oil (Tordo et al. 2013). It is very important to secure a healthy environment for the downstream oil industry in Netherland. In this chapter, the background of this study, aim and objective of this research, research question, possible limitations of the study,  rational of this study will be discussed.

1.2 Background of the Study

Health and safety environment (HSE) is very much important in every industry as it is directly associated with the safety of the worker.  In oil and gas industry the HSE is very much important as the workers are directly exposed to the various chemicals and various hazardous sounds. So it is very much important to maintain the HSE in the workplace. The concept of health safety in work place was first came at the time of industrial revolution as more number of people started to work in a very poor condition and the conditions were very much dangerous for the children too. In 1802, Sir Robert Peel first introduced the Factory act 1802. After that, in order to provide safety, various acts had been introduced such as Occupational Safety and Health Act 1970, Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (Holt and Allen 2015). It is very important to maintain a proper HSE in the oil industry as it is a subject of various laws and regulations and breaching of those laws will cause various bad consequences. In addition to this, it is also associated with the wellbeing of the workers, customers and the visitors.  A work place with proper health and safety environment will lead to a good reputation of the company and simultaneously enhance the employer’s job satisfaction.

1.3 Research Aim

The research aim is to enhance the health and safety standard in the downstream industry of oil and gas in the Netherlands and at the same time the protection of environment from this industry is also important. So by this research we will try to improve the health and safety of the worker and at the same time will try to protect the environment.

1.2  Research Objective

The primary objectives of this research are as follows.

1. To assess the effect on health of workers due to the activities in the downstream oil and gas industry.
2. To examine the effect on safety of workers due to the activities in the downstream oil and gas industry.
3. To rectify the effect on Environment due to the activities in the downstream oil and gas industry. 

1.3  Research Question

Our main research questions are as follows-

1. What is the effect on health of workers due to the activities in the downstream oil and gas industry?
2. What is the effect on safety of workers due to the activities in the downstream oil and gas industry?
3. How environment is affected by the activities in the downstream oil and gas industry?

1.4  Rational

The health, safety and environment is very much important in case of any industry. In addition to this maintain a proper environmental condition is very much important. In recent times it is seen that oil pollution has become a serious issue in Netherlands.  In a report of oil and gas industry in  UK it is seen that, the oil and gas industry is very much prone to accidents of the workers and the numbers of mishaps cannot be neglected at all (Borwell, 2016). In order to quantify the condition of Netherland, it is very important to conduct the research in oil and gas industry of Netherland.

1.7 Scope and Limitation

The main limitations of this study is time as the study will be conducted within 10 weeks. In addition to this fund for this study is another barrier in the way of this study. In future, if the study can be conducted with a long time period, the result of the study will be more reliable.

1.8 Project Outline

In this study, we are mainly proposing a research to find out the effect of oil and gas industry on health and safety environment. We will complete our work by the end of 10 weeks.

Chapter Two

Literature Review

The downstream oil and gas industry are assumed as one of the most hazardous for the workers in various countries in the world. So it is recommended that, in this industry, there should be proper use of various safety equipment and measures in order to maintain a safe condition in the work place. This consequently will result in a safer work place for the worker as well. In this industry, the use of various hazardous chemicals, high pressure condition may cause various difficulties for the workers. So it can be said that, the downstream industry are very much prone to accidents and it is the cause of various mishap in the workplace. In addition to this, the downstream oil industry also affect the environment in many ways by contributing in the pollution of the environment.  The petroleum refinery processes are one of the major sources of the environmental pollution such as air pollution, water pollution. In the locality, where the industry is located, the air and water of that area are mostly affected by the oil refinery industry.  In recent years it is seen that, oil and gas industry is growing in a very rapid manner as horizontal drilling and high volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF). The oil and gas industry’s fatality rate of is very much high and it has the 2.5 times more fatality rate than the  construction industry and 7 times greater than other general industry.  Surprisingly, the injury rates are lower than that of the construction industry. This suggests that, the workers does not report properly to the authority about the injury (Witter et al., 2016). According to the report of Retzer et al. (2013), it was seen that, the fatality rate was higher in the Small oil companies than that of the large and medium size companies. Lack of using proper safety equipment also contributed to enhanced fatality rate of the drilling contractors. In their study, they also found that, the new employees had the higher chances of injury. It was found that, almost 53.4% injury was taken place among the new employees within 1 year of their joining. Whereas 28.2% of injuries in new employees were seen within the 1-5 years of joining. The health of the workers were also affected by the exposure of various components. In a study the, the NIOSH researcher had found that, silica dusts are one of the major cause of the illness of the worker. They also had detected sources of the silica dust exposure during the operations of HVHF. They also had identified occupational chemical exposure among the worker of the oil and gas industry. According to a report of IOGP it was seen that, in the countries of the Sub-Saharan Africa the accidents rate are very high and along with this, there were also various fatal accidents and fatalities. In 2015, there were almost 10 cases of fatality, 7 fatal incidents in Africa. The fatal rate was 1.84 that was higher than that of the 2014 (0.86 in 2014) (ILO, 2017).

In Nigeria, a huge amount of petroleum is transported via tanker and almost 5000 tankers are involved in this process. So it is quite evident that, in order to supply the petroleum via tankers, environment is greatly affected by the tanker smoke that are released during the transportation of the oil.  During the time of the refining process in the downstream industry of petroleum, the most hazardous materials are released in the environment.  During the process of refining various air pollutants such as BTEX compounds that are benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylene is released. Along with this, there are also various other materials that are counted as an air pollutants. Among them carbon monoxide ( CO), nitrogen oxide (NO), particulate matter (PM), sulfur dioxide ( SO2), hydrogen sulfide ( H2S). In addition to this, the oil and gas industry also responsible for releasing various hydrocarbon compounds that are less toxic in nature such as methane, other volatile gas and oils. Moreover, in this process there are such materials that are associated with the onset of malignancy, creating various reproductive and developmental problems in the human body (Chauhan, Saini and Yadav 2014). Due to the release of various PM, the residents of that locality may face problems like asthma. The hazardous chemicals that are released from this oil and gas refinery, may cause fear among the community people. In a petroleum and gas downstream industry, the main sources of air pollution are leaking of equipment, high temperature combustion process, heating of process fluids and steam, accidental release of hazardous products and plant upsets as well. Moreover, in some cases, combination of oxides of nitrogen and volatile hydrocarbons may produce ozone that is a dangerous air pollutant ( Fang et el. 2013). The oil industries are also a major source of water pollution in the ground level and in the surface level. The waste materials of the oil refinery are directly contaminating the sources to which they have contact. During the refining process, the crude oil or the leaked materials of an equipment may cause serious water pollution.  In the released waste water, various hazardous materials such as ammonia, sulfide, suspended oil and various solid materials may contaminate the water bodies. Although, there are various guideline regarding the amount of those materials, in most of the cases the amounts of those materials are higher in the waste waters than that of the permissible limit (Victor 2017). The oil and gas workers may face various physical hazards. A physical hazards are the factors that can affect the worker without touching the worker. For example, vibration and noise hazards can be counted as a physical hazards. In addition to this, the worker may face various ergonomic hazards and biological hazards. The worker may face various problems that are related to their musculoskeletal system due to repetitive movement during the work, inappropriate job design, poor body postures as well. In addition to this, various bio active substances, microorganism, toxic materials can also affect the health of the worker (ILO, 2017).

Chapter Three

Methodology

1. Research philosophy

There are various type of research philosophies such as positivism, interpretivism, realism and constructivism. In this study we can use the research philosophy of positivism. In this philosophy the researcher generally collects the data and interpret the result in an objective way. The findings of this researches are generally observable and quantifiable.  In this research we will use the positivism research philosophy as we will collect the data at first and then interpret our result from that quantifiable data.

• Research approach

The research approaches are mainly of two types and it can be classified as inductive and deductive research approach. The inductive research approach is associated with the generation of new theory from the research. On the other hand the deductive research approach mainly concentrates on testing a theory that is already exist. This approach is mainly based on the relationship between the causal factor and its effect.

• Research strategy

A research strategy refers to the methodical process of the research that is the step wise process of a research. The research strategy will give the direction of the research in which the research will proceed in a systematic manner. A research strategy can be of Seven types that is Surveys, case studies, experiments, grounded theory, ethnography, archival research, and action research. In a deductive research approach, mainly surveys and experiments are used. In our research we will use the survey method for this method as it will help us to collect data from the workers of the petroleum industry.

• Time horizon

In research process time horizon is very much important and it can be divided into two categories. The first one is longitudinal and the second one is cross sectional. In our research we will use cross sectional study method in which we will collect data for one time within the proposed time period of our research.

• Data collection method

In our research we will use random sampling method in order to choose the sample size for this research. However, the workers who are working in this industry for at least 1 year and does not have any other mental and physical disability will be taken as a sample for our research. The workers who have been previously injured by any accidents in the work place, cannot be counted as a sample population for this research. Data collection technique can be divided in two types. The first one is primary data collection method and the other one is secondary data collection method. In the primary data collection method, the data is collected from the subject population itself. On the other hand in secondary data collection method, the published data is used in order to interpret a result. We will use questionnaire with open ended questions in order to collecting the data from the worker of the oil and gas industry.

• Data analysis

In a quantitative primary data collection method, various statistical techniques can be used. The statistical methods such as correlation, regression.

           g)Timeline

We have planned to complete these research within the time period of 10 week.  We will select the topic at the first week of proposed timeline. In the 2^nd to 3^rd week we will frame our research methods, choosing of research philosophy, research approach, research strategy, time horizon, data collection method, data analysis method. After that we will review the previous works by the time of 7^th week. Between 8^th to 9^th weeks we will finish the data collection. By the end of 11oth week we will complete the data analysis and will interpret the expected outcome of this research.The detailed timeline of the research is attached in the appendix section of this proposal.

• Research limitations

In this research, the main limitation of our work is the very short time period of the research. We have planned to complete our work within a time period of 10 week. This very short time will be major hindrance for our work. Along with this, more funding will provide us more freedom to conduct our research in better manner.

• Ethical aspects

During the time of the research, we will collect the information of the workers of the downstream industry. In order to maintain the ethical codes of conducts, we will not reveal those data in future and along with this, we also will not use the data in any other work or research.

References

Borwell, M. (2016). [online] Oilandgasuk.co.uk. Available at: http://oilandgasuk.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Health-Safety-Report-2017-Oil-Gas-UK.pdf [Accessed 7 Dec. 2018].

Chauhan, S.K., Saini, N. and Yadav, V.B., 2014. Recent trends of volatile organic compounds in ambient air and its health impacts: A review. Int. J. Technol. Res. Eng, 1, pp.667-678.

Fang, Y., Naik, V., Horowitz, L.W. and Mauzerall, D.L., 2013. Air pollution and associated human mortality: the role of air pollutant emissions, climate change and methane concentration increases from the preindustrial period to present. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 13(3), pp.1377-1394.

Holt, A.S.J. and Allen, J., 2015. Principles of health and safety at work. Routledge.

ILO (2017).

[online]

Ilo.org. Available at: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_dialogue/—sector/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_554798.pdf [Accessed 9 Dec. 2018].

Retzer KD, Hill R, Pratt SG. Motor vehicle fatalities among oil and gas extraction workers. Accid Anal Prev. 2013;51:168–174

Tordo, S., Warner, M., Manzano, O. and Anouti, Y., 2013. Local content policies in the oil and gas sector. The World Bank.

Victor, P.A., 2017. Pollution: Economy and environment. Routledge.

Witter, R.Z., Tenney, L., Clark, S. and Newman, L.S., 2014. Occupational exposures in the oil and gas extraction industry: State of the science and research recommendations. American journal of industrial medicine, 57(7), pp.847-856.