The phase through which the oil and gas industry is traversing is making it necessary for operators to constantly experiment in every operational aspect, in order to ascertain what would be most efficient in terms of costs, operational excellence and health & safety.
Industry players are having to engage in trial and error tests to understand which products, technologies and operational methods would work best for them.
This has made it imperative for companies to consistently upgrade the skill sets of its workforce, train them in the latest technical and operational trends, and keep them prepared to be able to competently handle swift changes in operating models. In a world driven by operational excellence goals, the key to the success of a company, and the industry as a whole, depends on innovation.
Experts suggest that Non-Destructive Testing or NDT thus becomes imperative when field servicing is required. Due to its various scientifically-proven techniques, a number of industry sectors, besides oil and gas, such as fabrication, construction, maritime, aerospace and medical, have resorted to it.
With regards to the oil and gas industry, besides training staff in the standard NDT methods, a company must also educate them in the examination techniques associated with drilling and production, especially since the application may require a combination of methods and techniques to determine and classify a component’s final condition with specialised equipment.
“Hence, a good foundation in product technology is essential in NDT. An inspector should not only understand what he/she is doing with NDT, but also how the component was produced and what the environment will do to it during its life cycle. The fundamentals of NDT have not changed that much over the years and neither should the responsibility of the inspector to use good judgement when challenged in a particular situation,” Chris Muir, Drill Stem/NDT QA Consultant at Abu Dhabi-based Specification Management Consultants, says.
The oil and gas industry has been increasingly adopting digital automation techniques and organisations have been keen enough to educate its employees on the ‘new thing’.
Speaking on the benefits of automation, Robert Hassett, general manager – Middle East & Africa, ATEC Services says: “Oil and gas exploration today happens in some of the most remote places in the world. Instruments constantly read data on both onshore and offshore facilities; the information is analysed and is processed back to control centres with banks of computers, which feed their results to real-time operations centres that adjust oil flows to optimise production and minimise downtimes.”
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However, automation also has its limitations, especially where field servicing comes into play. “Personnel are still required on the facility and hazardous area training is a mandatory requirement by all end users,” Hassett says.
Operating within a potentially hazardous environment can be challenging. Proper management of these areas requires competence, experience, careful planning, specialised installation and maintenance skills, plus a thorough understanding of operational safety practices. Safety of workers therefore comes into question as NDT operations at times requires them to be deployed in hostile conditions. “NDT is conducted in every part of the world, therefore awareness of the conditions need to be taken into consideration to understand what challenges the workers would face and they might be exposed to during operations. These are identified prior to the inspector performing his/her duties,” Muir explains.
Industry analysts say training courses in drilling operations have been most in demand off late. Moreover, as the industry advances, the NDT is changing from raw manufacturing and process inspections to ‘more finished product examination requirements’.
“The most popular training courses that are in high demand is our Ex 01 – Ex 04 courses, one of the driving forces behind this is that companies are becoming more aware of the dangers when working in hazardous areas and they are more focus on getting their personnel trained to a higher level of awareness,” Hassett says.
He explains: “CompEx Ex 01 – Ex 04 this course provides competence–based training and assessment for electrical and instrumentation personnel working in hazardous areas. Practical ‘hands–on’ training and assessment takes place in a realistic simulated environment, giving attendees a comprehensive learning experience which will transfer to their working setting and enhance the real-world experience.”
HSE will continue to be the first step, as well as the focal point of the regional industry’s training programme. “The current downturn in the oil and gas sector has had an effect on many businesses. However regardless of the downturn, safety always comes first and companies cannot comprise on this. So we have not been affected in our training division for CompEx,” Hassett says.
“Safe working practices are key for all companies and continuous improvement to ensure better HSE conditions is critical to survive in the oil and gas sector. The Middle East is becoming one of the leaders in bringing together all stakeholders and industry leaders to share best practices and this will help in changing the mindset of all people who work in the industry,” Hassett says.
(Finally: The Last Word for this Special Report on Skills, Training & Certification)…
