Auditing environmental, health and safety management systems in E&P companies: A second generation auditing program

Conference · Tue Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:414743

Goldman, D J; Guckian, W M; Moore, D W

This paper presents the development of a method of performing Management Systems Audits of Environmental, Health and Safety (EH&S) programs in upstream oil and gas companies. It describes how the results from the compliance auditing system presented in SPE Paper 25955, {open_quotes}Initiating an Audit Program: A Case History{close_quotes} were combined with a system Categorizing EH&S activities into several management systems defined by regulations and good operational practices, and used to perform short term {open_quotes}Pareto-style{close_quotes} audits (e.g., 80% of the value from 20% of the time). A comparison is made of this type of audit model with the classic accounting audit model. Examples from Management System Audits of ARCO`s foreign and domestic operations are used. Included are discussions of the economic benefit of performing EH&S Audits and the benefit of developing a method of auditing considering the new ISO 14000 standard for environmental auditing and the proposed ISO safety auditing standard. The conclusions presented are that auditing by experienced personnel using an auditing template developed exclusively for upstream operations provides benefits to the company in the areas of compliance, management systems development and education of first line operations personnel as well as resulting in an overall reduction in the cost of an audit. A further conclusion will be that trends in international standardization appear to be mandating an EH&S auditing program for those companies planning to do business outside the United States.

• OSTI ID: 414743
• Report Number(s): CONF-960623--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
AUDITS
COMPLIANCE
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
STANDARDIZATION