Emergency Response Plans for Oil and Gas

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In the last blog, I discussed how constructive simulation might be used to improve the quality of safety briefings.  This time I am going to discuss Emergency Response Plans (ERPs) and how constructive simulation can potentially revolutionize how these are prepared and used.

First of all, let's discuss WHY the industry creates Emergency Response Plans.  "Because we have to" is probably the wrong response.  "Because it helps create the conditions for success, mitigate loss and improve response when something goes wrong" is probably closer to the correct answer.  So stepping back, we can see that there is a need to make the potential response "successful" and that we need to limit losses when something goes wrong - this is the root of "why".

But what has happened?  People get focused on the "wrong answer" and create a 1000 page tome that no one reads (or can read) that checks all the boxes but in the end achieves absolutely nothing.  The problems with a long, text-based Emergency Response Plan are:

  a. they are hard to understand;
  b. the information is not readily accessible in an emergency;
  c. information is scattered in different places;
  d. it is hard to get an overview of "what is supposed to happen" in an emergency;
  e. it is difficult to translate text into "action" when it comes time to practice or when the real event occurs

So the current state is that we have (possibly) fully compliant Emergency Response Plans that are (mostly) useless.  How can we fix the problem?

Anyone remember back before GIS systems such as ESRI existed?  There were thousands of drawings with information in various formats which were difficult to overlay and cross reference, difficult to share and difficult to understand.  Sound familiar?

The same way that GIS has transformed the way the geo-information is stored, Constructive Simulation has the ability to transform Emergency Response Plan information from STATIC, difficult to use and understand to a simple and DYNAMIC tool that can be re-used in dozens of ways.

Here is an example of how a Constructive Simulation could assist in the creation of an Emergency Response Plan:

1.  Emergency Response Plan creator gathers relevant data from the existing GIS system and loads these into the constructive simulation.  Much of this information can be automatically or semi-automatically loaded into the simulation and this would usually only need to be done one time for all the emergency response plans in the area.  Nothing new is required - this is the same information that is needed for the paper-based ERP, except that it is in digital format. The information loaded would include:

  a.  Oil and Gas infrastructure
  b.  Surrounding municipal infrastructure
  c.  Terrain information
  d.  Local response equipment locations and catalog
  e.  Distant/on-call response equipment locations and catalog

2.  Emergency Response Plan creator then plans out a number of disasters using the constructive simulation. For a pipeline or wide area infrastructure this could be breaks, fires or explosions in different sectors (wherever a different response is needed).  For fixed infrastructure such as a gas well, it might be varying wind directions to show the differences in response.  With a modern constructive simulation, each disaster should not take a long time to prepare and place within the simulation - maybe one or two hours per disaster location.

3.  Emergency Response Plan creator finally lays out the actual emergency response by giving orders to the simulated entities within the simulation (the ones loaded during step 1).  Of course the response is done in accordance with municipal and mutual aid agreements that are in place.  This is done for each "disaster" that was created in step 2.  Depending on the size, duration and danger, each of the responses can be created in a couple of hours (the start state is usually the same).  Usually each disaster and response are saved as a single scenario.

That's it! Once the Digital Emergency Response Plan is created in the constructive simulation, the electronic file can be shared with consultants and government agencies with the same ease that a GIS shape file can be shared.  What you have at this point is a terrific digital product that has the following advantages over its poor cousin, the paper-based ERP:

• Fewer chances for errors - the resources (simulation entities) are placed on a visual map.  It is easy to see if there is something missing or out of place
• Easier to Use - the product, once created, can be used in multiple ways without each user having to re-visualize and recreate the data.
• Time and Space - the real world is taken into account when running the simulated ERP.  A truck can't drive faster than a truck can drive, and the simulated truck burns gas the same way a real truck does.  It is far easier to spot planning shortfalls in a simulation that uses time and space as opposed to a paper plan.
• Reuse, reuse, reuse - plot the data once and re-use it for multiple purposes, multiple times (more on this in a minute)
• Faster and less effort to create the plan

REUSE, REDUCE, RECYCLE

As was stated above, once you have the data in the simulation format, you can use it for multiple purposes.  Here are some examples:

1. Internal company policies and procedures - visualize the problem using the simulation and work together to solve the issues with the ERP and wide-area/long-term response
2. Safety briefings (as discussed in the last blog)
3. Internal Training - run mini-exercises to provide better training than a briefing in about the same amount of time
4. Provide government agencies with an easy to understand ERP document that they can visualize and approve faster and easier.  If a picture tells a thousand words, a dynamic simulation must be worth a million words.  Of course some text-based information will always be required.
5. Conduct Town Hall Meetings with a tool that lets landowners see and understand the ERP and get a level of comfort that you know what you are doing. Also it will be easier for them to understand what they must do in an emergency
6. Yearly Training - using a simulation is much more effective and realistic than a tabletop exercise, and it costs much, much less than a live exercise.  Live exercises will always be required, but this provides better training in the interim for a lot lower cost.

In summary a Digital ERP can provide significant value to all parties. Government approval agencies can approve plans faster because they understand it better and don't need to wade through a miry document to get the information they need.  Companies can produce better ERPs faster than before and at a greatly reduced cost due to the data reuse and less waste generation of words that no-one reads.  Landowners benefit because they have an easier to understand ERP that can be shown and validated with a simple to use tool.  Finally the public benefits because they have a better system that takes advantage of the recent advances in simulation technology to produce better ERPs that are being properly approved, diligently tested and exercised and efficiently approved with less bureaucracy.  

I hope that this has generated some interest and discussion.  I will discuss the validation of Emergency Response Plans in my next blog.

Keep Training!

Bruce

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How to Plan a Public Safety Exercise in 5 Easy Steps – Part 1/2

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One of the biggest failures in the actual execution of training for public safety managers (or for anyone, for that matter) can be traced back to the lack of a plan.  Everyone’s time is valuable, so why waste it?  A little bit of planning can alleviate most of the issues and produce a positive training event and an experience that will gain you esteem and compliments from your peers.  Fortunately this is no secret and the steps are easy:

Step 1 – Establish Training Goals

What are you trying to teach?  Often people hold exercises for the simple reason that “it was scheduled” and then improvise the exercise design and content.  Mistake!  If you haven’t checked, first why not see if your organization has some training goals.  If you are fortunate, there will be clear training goals set out, complete with measureable objectives.  For instance, you may be working up toward next year’s TOPOFF exercise and your organization (or your superior organization) may have a plan to that end.  Work with it!  If there is no plan, then it is up to you.  Why not do a little research and find out what your organization is bad at doing and design an exercise to improve that.  Even if your organization works great together, why not stretch things and make the goal to work better with other organizations.  This leads in to the next point – establishing your training audience.

Step 2 – Determine the Training Audience

Who needs the training?  Everyone should undergo training, but you need to focus your training to a particular audience to provide the best benefit.  What I often do is divide the group of people to be trained into two groups – the Primary Training Audience, which is the small group that we are designing the training SPECIFICALLY for, and the Secondary Training Audience, who is everyone else who is attending the training event, but who are not the specific focus of the training.  What this does is add laser-sharp focus to your goals and objectives.  It either improves training for the Primary Training Audience, in which case it is necessary, or it improves training for the Secondary Training Audience, in which case it is non-essential and would ONLY be included if it DOES NOT impact the training or resources going toward the Primary Training Audience.  This seems harsh, but trust me, it is the ONLY way to separate the wheat from the chaff.  The good ideas (the ones that support the Primary Training Audience) get included and the well-intentioned, last minute, good but not great ideas don’t end up impacting the event.  If you are Draconian in disallowing stuff that detracts from or does not add to the Primary Training Audience’s training, then you WILL have a good training event. 

Step 3 – Hold an Initial Planning Meeting (at least two months before the event!)

The best training is a group effort with well-motivated and involved people who believe in what they are doing.  You need to invite the right group to the Initial Planning Meeting, and this means doing some research.  Who can you rely upon to complete tasks?  You need some “do-ers”.   Who needs “buy-in”?  In many cases you are going to have to forge together a number of working groups of people who, in the worst case, don’t want to work with you and are too busy.  The best case is that they want to help you and have some time to help you.  Plan for the worst, and hope for the best and you will do well. 

In preparation for the meeting, you should publish an agenda ahead of time to the agencies or groups who will be attending, monitoring and assisting with the exercise.  You need buy-in from everyone, so you might as well state it up front.  You also need to be clear that it is going to be a working meeting, so people who come should be prepared to make decisions on behalf of their department or group and that they will be participating in the planning.  You should publish with your agenda a tentative date or a few dates for the exercise event, as well as the planned participants - the groups, agencies, departments – as well as the overall training goals and objectives.  Solicit feedback prior to the event and try to iron any issues with the basic plan out prior to the planning conference – or else you will waste the whole session deciding what that training objective is or whether or not you are having an exercise at all.  

You should try to get the following out of the Initial Planning Meeting:

• Exercise Concept and Training Objectives - How long is the exercise?  Where will it be held?  Do the dates work? Break down the training objectives to at least one more level of detail.  You need to know more detail about your goals in order to design the exercise properly.  This is so important that for large exercises this portion is often conducted as its own meeting.
• Initial Groups of Master Scenario List Injects – what types of informational problems are going to be provided?  These should link directly to training objectives.
• Basic Scenario Overview – What is the constructive (time and space) side of the exercise going to look like?  What is the emergency (or emergencies) that the participants need to interact with in order to accomplish the training objectives
•  Outcomes – what is the training going to achieve?  After the training is over can we draw a line directly between the outcomes and the training objectives?
•  Goals for the Exercise – Perhaps there are one or more goals that the exercise is trying to achieve (over and above the training objectives).  “Establish a working relationship with Department X” or “Involve Agency Y” in training are examples of this.

After you have hammered all of these items out and have some good agreement amongst the participants, you will now see that what lies in front of you is a bunch of work. You probably need or organize the work either as formal committees (with a formal schedule of meetings) or as informal working groups (with a formal schedule of meetings and milestones). The point is that unless it is a very simple exercise or you are a tireless worker with nothing else to do, there is probably more work here than one person can accomplish.  Here are some examples of the working groups needed:

·         Administrative Working Group – working out the details of the venue, feeding, travel, accommodations, administrative instruction, contracting, work parties for setup and teardown (if required), bookings, etc.

·         Scenario Writing Board – the group of people who are going to create the exercise.  What types of subject matter experts are needed?  Where will they come from?  Who will create the Master Scenario List injects?  How will the constructive side of the exercise come together?  Where is the scenario?  How do we find out about which assets will be involved?  All of these details (and more) need to be discussed.

·         Exercise Control Working Group – The exercise control working group is in charge of the overall exercise.  How it all works out in the end is dependent on this group and how they create the overall exercise – Their aim is to ensure the exercise meets the training objectives.  This group is usually small and members sit in on the other working groups.  This group will also be instrumental in choosing the tools to be used and the contractor(s) to be hired for the exercise.

·         Personnel Group – someone needs to coordinate the invitations for other departments and agencies, managing the big wigs who will be attending and their interaction with the exercise, the invitations to the subject matter experts, finding suitable observer/mentors to work with the training audience, and so on.

These groups should set objectives, schedule and milestones and meet as frequently as required to ensure the work is being done.  Often the meeting can be a simple teleconference where the products are shared beforehand and the meeting focuses on any issues with the products and what needs to be done next. 

In the next blog in this series I will focus on the two remaining steps – the Mid Term/Master Scenario Events List Meeting and the Final Planning Meeting.

Keep Training!

Bruce