Critical Analysis Of Management For Health And Safety In An Oil & Gas Environment At Port-Harcourt Refinery

Background of the Study

This research study highlights the critical analysis of the management for health and safety in an Oil & Gas environment. The organization that is considered for this research work is Port-Harcourt Refinery. This chapter focuses on the background of the study, rational of the research, problem statement along with the aim, research objective and research question for the research. This chapter also demonstrates the pictorial representation of the structure of the research.

The refineries in Nigeria are in ailing conditions and the amount of petrol they produce in very less. This is due to the mismanagement of the corporations and the Nigeria has become dependent on imports from OPEC members. The refineries in Nigeria require heavy investments and it is estimated that $2 Billion is required to prevent the refineries form decay (The Guardian 2018). This will enable them to produce 450,000 barrels per day. Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s board has looking for investors that can prevent the refineries form deteriorating. There are other reasons that are liable for the pollution and destruction of the livelihoods in Nigeria. There are oil refineries that operate illegal refineries in delta states which leads to the self-destruction and vicious circle of pollution (The Guardian 2018). Moreover, after the 1967-70 Biafran civil wars, these people do not receive any benefits from stopping or cleaning up their pollution (The Guardian 2018). This result in the miserable health of the workers and no access to safe drinking water and due to poor education services in this place, workers cannot get proper information regarding the benefits of clearing the pollution (The Guardian 2018).

In addition to that, the petroleum minister of Nigeria has explained various reasons due to which the major Nigerian refineries have not undergone repairs even after investigation from the original builders. After assessing the functional conditions of the refineries, it has been seen that the extent of dilapidation and the decay of the major equipments are high. The equipments have not been maintained for over some decades, and this shows the lack of management of the refineries concerning health and safety measures for the organization. The original builders have taken the contracts during the term of the previous government and they were unable to make the changes, as they were unaware of the present conditions of the equipments at that time. Thus, this research will highlights the present conditions of the refineries in Nigeria, challenges faced by the management in health and safety of refineries in Port-Harcourt Refinery and possible reasons for the current conditions of the management in health and safety in the same company.

Challenges in the Nigerian Refining Industry

Oil and gas refinery sector are one of the most dangerous place to work. Workers here have to maintain their health along with their working procedures. However, this is not possible for the worker to know all the flaws in the safety system of the refinery and thus, in spite they are careful in their working procedure, their health get affected and sometime big accident also occurred. This is a major problem in Nigerian oil refineries as every state or nation has legal regulation for the safety of the worker in the organization. They also have to maintain the environment legislations in order to accomplish their organizational objectives. However, in Nigerian refineries, there is huge lack of managerial end regarding the heath and safety measures of the refineries. This can be shown from the statistics that the number of fatality rate is 308 in the last seven years (Dailytrust.com.ng 2018).

The main reason for these accidents is injuries during the pipeline repairing, attacks on these workers, accidents and tank inflammations. Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) reported death of seven people in Port-Harcourt refinery fire in the year 2014 (Dailytrust.com.ng 2018). Thus, this research will highlight the challenges faced by the management in health and safety of refineries and the possible reasons for the current conditions of such management in Port-Harcourt Refinery.

Every organization has to maintain some legislation for protecting their worker’s health and environmental concern. However, in Nigeria, due to lack of monetary resources, illegal business procedures and lack of knowledge among the people, the management often overlooks the safety concern in their organization. Moreover, yearly accidental incidents and fatality rate have been increasing in Nigerian Oil refineries and the most prominent reason is the lack of maintenance of the equipments and safety guideline for the workers. This research thus emphasizes on the current conditions of the refinery in Nigeria, possible reason for the poor maintenance of the management in Health & Safety of refineries.

The study is aimed at examining the current issues in the oil and gas refineries in Nigeria. The managerial issues in maintaining health and safety concerns will be highlighted by using thematic analysis based on the research objectives. The conclusion will be based on the findings from the in-depth analysis of literature and the thematic analysis based on the concerned organization. The research will identify relevant solutions to the problems faced by the oil and gas refineries in Nigeria.

• To critically examine the present conditions of the refineries in Nigeria
• To identify the challenges faced by the management in health and safety of refineries in Port-Harcourt Refinery, Nigeria
• To investigate the possible reasons for the current conditions of the management in health and safety in Port-Harcourt Refinery, Nigeria
• To recommend suitable methods to overcome the problems faced by the Port-Harcourt Refinery 

Analysis of Health and Safety Issues in Oil Refineries

• What is the present condition of the refineries in Port-Harcourt Refinery, Nigeria?
• What are the challenges faced by the management in Health & Safety of refineries in Port-Harcourt Refinery, Nigeria?
• What are the possible reasons for the current conditions of the management in health and safety in Port-Harcourt Refinery in Nigeria?

This research is thus based on finding some research objectives that are critically examining the present conditions of the refineries in Nigeria, identifying the challenges faced by the management in health and safety of refineries in Port-Harcourt Refinery and investigating the possible reasons for the current conditions of the management in health and safety in Port-Harcourt Refinery. Moreover, based on the literature review and the thematic analysis based on the objectives, the recommendation for suitable methods to overcome the problems faced by the Port-Harcourt Refinery is highlighted.

This chapter is based on the research work done by other research scholars based on the theories on management in oil and gas refineries and theories on health and safety factors in this sector. The present conditions of the refineries in Nigeria are also highlighted from several newspaper excerpts, government reports and other authentic sources. The challenges faced by the management in Health & Safety of refineries and the possible reasons for the challenges faced is also highlighted and supported by relevant research articles.

Olaguer (2012) stated that upstream activities are those activities that occurred prior processing and refining of hydrocarbon. The process of upstream comprises of conceptual development, exploration of oils and production. Briggs et al. (2012) depict that this process is involved with investment for new product development.

The process of downstream highlights the procedure of transportation of the crude oil after extraction (Noruwa and Christopher 2012). Lattanzio (2015) furthermore stated that the main functionality of downstream activities are processing of the crude, refining of the crude logistic and retail transactions. In order to accomplish these functionalities, an oil and gas company requires pipelines, industrial plants and storage devices.

The project of oil refineries are risky as mistakes in handling the refining process may lead to impure oil extraction, leakage of oil in water bodies and fire due to its ignitions nature (Oliveira et al. 2013). However, the risk factors that us mainly highlighted in this research study is health and safety concerns. Dey (2012) stated that factors that best define the health and safety implications in oil refinery projects are motor vehicle accidents, contract injuries, fire and explosions and slips and falls. Saidi et al. (2014) stated that the reason of motor vehicle accident is caused due to lack of firm shoulder. Moreover, the main reason for the occurrence of contract injuries is mainly due to entangled or crushed by machinery in the refinery. In addition to that, the reason for the fire and explosions are presence of oxygen or ignition sources and presence of highly combustible sources. Lastly, the accidents of slips and falls are occurred due to uneven surface in the refinery, frequent need of elevations and improper use of protection system. Thus, the risk management process in the oil and gas refinery comprises of several steps: 

Risk Management Process in the Oil and Gas Refinery

Fazli et al. (2015) stated that this is the process, where the oil and gas industry has to identify the key personnel, who will be liable for managing the oil and gas risk assessment projects. In this process, the organization has to gather all the health and safety information along with the identification of the workflows and legal requirements (James 2012).  

In this stage, the management has to identify the possible health and safety hazards from sources like previous reports on accidents, work area inspection and past health records.

The sources are identified in this process of each identified risk. The management is also liable for evaluating the precautionary measures and determination of type of injuries that can occur (Fabiano and Curro 2012). These risks can be analyzed or ranked based on some tolls like risk analysis matrix.

In order to define the control measures, in this phase, the management of the organization prepares record regarding the findings of the risk management assessments (Ebrahemzadih et al.  2014). Leveson (2015) stated that this filing process is important for sanctioning any financial support from government or preparing the checklist for assuring the health and safety management process in refinery.  

In this phase, the preventive measures are defined and implemented. Liu et al. (2012) also depict that in this process the occurred or existing risk is also minimized through developed ideas for overcoming the occurred risk.

This is the phase prior to the final step in which the management of the oil and gas refinery ensure the implemented process and judge whether or not the process is effective and give beneficial results for the company (McLellan et al. 2012).

In this phase, the entire process is continuously monitors and automation technology is also implemented so that any discrepancies can be noted n the initial stages.

Lewis et al. (2012) stated that every organization has to develop mandatory occupational safety and health requirements and that should be applicable for all the employees. This will help an organization to determine the extent of employee’s exposure towards hazards. The people hired for measuring the industrial hygiene are liable to measure workplace hazards, finding the factor for significant discomfort in workers (Elgowainy et al. 2014).

Santamouris (2013) stated that Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) highlight the condition of air quality, thermal conditions, lightings and ergonomics of the refinery environment. This is incorporated in order to improve the life of the wor ker inside the closed work space. Thus, the safety management should closely evaluate the building materials like paints, adhesives, sealants and coatings. Huat and Akasah (2012) furthermore illustrates that IEQ should also refer to cleaning materials used, detection of radon or methane off-gassing, analysis of occupants’ respiration and other health reports.

Evaluation of Health and Safety Measures

The statistics shows that every year hundreds of employees are injured inside the refinery and due to the same fact the company has to include a policy for employee’s compensation. Ghasemi et al. (2016) stated that, oil companies on the other hand can take necessary steps for reducing the likelihood of an insurance claim. This step comprised of identifying the sources of risk along with the required actions that is taken by the policyholder to overcome the risk (Barth and McCarthy 2012).

The policy that is developed for the employee should be clearly mentioned in the organizational policy guidebook. Witter et al. (2014) also stated that the policy should be transparent and must be clearly aware to the employees and their family members so that it will be easier for them to claim the necessary monetary amount sanctioned for the worker.  

Training should also be given to the employee of the oil and gas refinery so that they can utilize the equipment in a desired way. Hashemi et al. (2012) state that this training program can be conducted regularly so and practical implementation should be taught to the workers. They should also be aware of the reporting procedure to the management if they noticed nay discrepancy. This will help the staffs to utilize their knowledge base and trained courses to protect themselves under serious conditions.   

In Nigeria, there is four refineries under Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)- one each in Warri (WRPC) and Kaduna (KRPC) and two in Port Harcourt (PHRC) (Nnpcgroup.com 2018). The capacity of the refinery is combined to be total of 445,000 bpd (Nnpcgroup.com 2018).

In recent time, when assessment of the refinery systems and equipments are assessed by Minister of Petroleum Resources, it has been found that the equipment were not maintained or change from the last 20 years (Díaz-Bejarano et al. 2015). The new owners have conducted the work the way they saw when they joined. As a result, the original builders were called to check whether changes are required. Santori et al. (2012) also stated that since the equipments are outdated, it hampers the total oil production and result in further poor result of profitability. The poor state of refinery machineries also leads to failed formal agreement with the companies as the issue in equipments

Nigeria is known as the leading oil producing nation but in recent times, Nigeria has become a major fuel importer. Federal Government spent US $6.09 billion for the first six months in the year 2016 for importing purpose (Siddig et al. 2014). Across the world, there are 49 global oil companies and it is only NNPA that do not own as dynamic and vibrant downstream sector so that the local people can also consume oil produced by them. Moreover, in the year 1977, NNPS was established as an integrated national oil company that should include both the upstream and downstream oil value chain (Bazilian et al. 2013). However, after the establishment of all four refineries in Nigeria, it has not been properly maintained and no new technology has been incorporated for up-gradation. The government also has not taken any initiatives to improve the refineries and impose legislation for protecting the life of people and environment.

Conclusion and Recommendations

da Silva César et al. (2013) stated that due to lack of government’s evaluations, some companies already developed illegal oil refineries. The Nigerian Navy also reported that they have discovered 30 new illegal refineries that is liable for 4 million liter of petroleum products (Vanguard News 2018). The poor pay structure and overlooking of government results in working for other illegal company. The illegal refineries are also responsible for dropping of 17% of official oil sales in April in the year 2012 which is equivalent to 400,000 barrels a day (Vanguard News 2018).

In Nigeria, the condition of environment is poor and the existing workers are also suffered from chronicle disease. Safadi et al. (2014) on the other hand highlighted that the condition of the refineries are also vulnerable and the main reason behind this is that refineries are low-profit margin industry and the company as to work 24X7 in order to make some profit. Thus investing cost in the maintenance of the refineries is not a matter of concern for the refinery owner. This also results in high probability of accident in the workplace. The poor condition of the environment and the poor water condition due to oil spills lead to birth of dead babies (Koh et al. 2014). Moreover due to the accident in the refinery, many workers died. Thus, overall there occurs a scarcity of workers.

Quinlan (2014) depicted that since due to accidents, fatality and health problem, death of workers are regularly witnessed. However, according to the organizational policy, the company has to pay compensation to the worker if they are injured in the workplace or to their family members in case, the person died (Eyayo 2014). The management in Health & Safety of refineries often noticed such sudden death in their refineries and they have to pay compensation to the victim and the amount comes to a huge sum when distributed to many families. This leads to loss of percentage in profitability.

Priest and Botson (2012) stated that regular death, new about regular payment of compensation to the victim or government and allegation of disruption in environmental conditions are some of the factors that the management of health and safety has to face. All the factors when pointed to negative implications it affect the brand image and reputation (Bybee and Johannes 2014).

Government is liable for the development of the organization along with the development of environment. Steele et al. (2014) highlighted that government imposes many legislations and regulations so that all the business objectives can be operated without any negative implications. Jafari (2013) furthermore depicted that there are some refineries, where minimum safety measures are not followed in order to incur more profit. These refineries also produce wrong data in their annual report. Thus, all these unethical modes leads to closure of refineries as government provide no help and financial resources to them.

Dey (2012) stated that it is important for a manger to know all the basics of the management of the refinery system. They should also have the knowledge of refining the oil procedures, treatment of the workers and other operational functionalities that occurred in oil and gas industries. Salazar-Aramayo et al. (2013) also argued that these managers should also update their knowledge through different sources and need to implement it in their work space if they see any flaw in the working environment. However, in distant places like Nigeria, educated people do not take their posting due to poor environment and as a result less educated managers or corrupted managers are given the liability of a refinery. These managers do not have any knowledge in maintaining the equipments and as a result the worker working has to suffer (Saurin and Gonzalez 2013).  

Apart from the knowledge of the managers regarding the working procedure of the oil and gas refinery, it is also important for the government to impose regulations so that the working conditions under the refinery can be under control (Shepherd 2013.). Taken for instance, Offshore Installations Regulations 2015, Diving at Work Regulations 1997, Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, Offshore Installations and Pipeline Works (First-Aid) Regulations 1989 and Offshore Safety Regulations 1993 are some legislation that are imposed in oil and gas sector in United Kingdom (Hse.gov.uk 2018). Thus, nation that lacks such guideline often suffer from problem like poor condition of refinery and working procedures. In Nigeria some of the regulations with specific relevance to the oil and gas industry are Labour Act and applicability of common law, The Local Content Act, The Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act, The Petroleum Act and The Petroleum (Drilling and Production) Regulations (Difiglio 2014). However these laws need to be strict and the official of the governing bodies need to monitor the refineries for assessing whether or not the company is following the regulations.

Mbabazi (2012) present an argument that following ethical rules leads to lower profitability and thus, industrialist looks for loopholes in the regulation for attaining more profit. Thus, every marketer opts for developing a customized regulation or organizational policy through which maximum profitability can be drawn. This is also a great reason for the deletion of work and safety management in oil refineries.

Lovejoy and Homan (2013) stated that in the material management plan, an organization need to report about site of origin, landowners, general plans and schematics for health and safety management, parties involved and consultation for health and safety management, lines of evidence with the action plan that is needed to be implemented for better result of the organization. However, Klass and Meinhardt (2014) argued that sometimes managers do not give full attention to such plan and this result in allocation of more resources, implementation of more budgets and poor outcome for the organization.

The methods of risk identification involves in development of full project team for maintaining the health and safety management procedures, identification of the potential risks involved under the working atmosphere (Tordo and Anouti 2013). Ince et al. (2015) furthermore depict that these officials are also responsible for assessing methods of qualitative risk like risk screening, highlighting impact and probability of potential risk. Some managers also use Project Definition Rating Index methods as a part of qualitative risk analysis method. On the other hand, Mitchell et al. (2012) argued that qualitative method not always give genuine results and thus quantitative methods should also be used. However, due to lack of knowledge results in poor estimation and utilization of multivariate statistical models, event trees, project simulations, sensitivity analysis, stochastic simulation models and system dynamics models (Dey 2012). 

This chapter highlights the systematic way to collect the data for the research. This chapter demonstrates the selected research philosophy, research approach and research purpose along with the reason to choose those particular process. The details about data collection process, data analysis process and sampling techniques are also illustrated. Lastly this chapter comprises of the details of research limitation, ethics followed in this research study and timeframe of the research work.

Coleman (2013) stated that the main purpose to choose research philosophy is to gather the relevant data for the research. Research philosophy deals with the source and development of the knowledge that should be collected and analyzed. There are basically three types of research philosophies- positivism, realism and interpretivism. Bns and Hv (2013) depict that if a research is highly structures and consider a huge sample size, positivism philosophy is selected. On the other hand, if the research is based on social belief, interpetivism philosophy is used. However, realism philosophy shows the combination of bit the philosophies that are positivism and interpretivism.

In this research study, all the data gathered from the articles, newspapers and company’s website. Thus, there is no sample size taken for this research and the factual data available on the internet is considered to be authentic sources for addressing the research objectives.

Deductive and inductive approaches are two different forms of research approaches. Novikov and Novikov (2013) stated that when data collection is done prior to developing the literature review in order to find new theories, hypothesis and concepts, the process is known as inductive approach. However, when no new theories are gathered and the literature reviews and data collection are obtained in accordance to the obtained research question, the process is known as deductive approach.  

In this research study, the approach that is considered is deductive approach.

The reason for selecting the deductive research approach is that in this research no hypothesis is formulated and the literature review is developed for explaining the research questions.  

Smith (2013) highlighted that research purpose shows the approach through which the research question can be answered. This can be done in two ways- exploratory method and descriptive method. Kitchin and Tate (2013) furthermore explained that while answering the research question, if new direction or theories concerning the research topic is explored, the method is known as exploratory purpose. On the other hand, if the data and information gathered from the literature review and data analysis is used to find the answers of the research questions, the process of known as descriptive research purpose.

In this research study, the purpose that is utilized is descriptive.

The descriptive purpose justifies this research work because no new theories are explored through the findings of the research and the research is conducted for finding the answers of all the formulated research questions.

The data that is gathered for research for answering the research questions is referred as data collection process. Data for the research can be gathered through two different ways- primary data collection and secondary data collection method. Smith (2015) stated that direct research respondents are considered for asking questions on the research topic in primary data collection method. This primary data collection can be obtained through questionnaire surveys, interview and telephonic conversations (Hewson and Stewart 2016). On the other hand, secondary sources like newspaper articles, journal papers, research journals and peer reviewed journals along with government and company’s website when considered, the process is known as secondary data collection process.

In this research study, both primary and secondary data collection process is utilized. The managers are selected who are the research respondents for the interview process, however, research papers on oil and gas refineries, challenges faced by management for health and safety concerns are selected for gathering secondary data for the research.

The process of evaluating the obtained data from the data collection process is known as data analysis technique. There are two different ways to analysis the data- quantitative and qualitative data analysis technique. Neuman (2013) explained that when numerical data are considered for evaluating the research outcome. It is known as quantitative data analysis technique. On the other hand, when theoretical data are considered for the research, it is known as qualitative data analysis technique.

In this research, quantitative data analysis technique is utilized. The reason is that both the data obtained from the secondary research and interview from the managers are analyzed theoretically.

There are two different type of sampling technique used in the research- probability and non-probability sampling techniques. Creswell and Creswell (2017) stated that when all the respondents are selected with equal priority, it is known as probability sampling technique. However, when the research respondents are selected not based on the equal priority but based on the condition matched with the research objectives.

In this research study, non-probability technique is utilized as manager is selected who are liable for handling the health and safety departments of the concerned organization. The data collection from the secondary sources is also selected based on the topics that satisfy the research objectives that is based on health and safety concern in oil and gas refinery.

The total participants selected for the research to answer all the research questions are known as sample size. In this research, for primary data collection, only three managers are selected and they are asked questions based on the application and technology used for improving the health and safety management in the concerned organization. 

Miller et al. (2012) stated that proper ethics should be followed so that the research outcome can be obtained by following all the necessary rules and guideline. In this research all the data gathered from the managers are protected under the act of Data Protection Act (1998). Moreover, all the data collected from secondary sources are properly credited using citations.

This research suffers from the limitation of in-depth primary research. The reason behind is this, the health and safety implications are set by the management; however the people, who are closely connected with the system are the workers. So, secondary research or the manager’s interview do not highlight the exact suffering that thee workers actually witnessed. Additionally, the secondary data do not produce any recent data and the data outcome is based on outdated data. Moreover, the research is based on one particular organization in Nigeria. Thus, the research is not applicable for other organization in Nigeria or same sector from other nation.

Main activities/ stages	1-2 Week	3- 4 Week	5- 6 Week	7- 8 Week	9- 10 Week	11- 12 Week
Topic Selection
Data collection from secondary sources
Literature review
Selection of the Appropriate Research Techniques
Primary data collection
Secondary data collection
Analysis & Interpretation of Data Collection
Conclusion of the Study
Submission of Final Work

Table 1: Time Frame for the research

(Source: Created by Author)

Thus, in this research study, interpretivism research philosophy is utilized as social belief on the research topic has been considered. Moreover, deductive research approach and descriptive research purpose has been utilized as no new theories has been considered and the research questions are described through the literature review and collected data from the research respondents. Primary data have collected from the managers and secondary data are gathered from newspaper articles and research journals based on the topic of management of health and safety management in oil refineries. These data are analyzed through qualitative data analysis technique in order to address the research objectives.

In this chapter only those sources and materials are considered that reveals data for the condition of the refinery and its implications on the health and safety factors for Port-Harcourt Refinery, Nigeria. This chapter also highlights the response that the managers of the concerned organization reveal on the condition of the refines in recent times and their plan for the future development of the refinery.    

In industry like oil and gas refineries, due to the nature of the work unavoidable hazards occurred. These hazards are ill-health and injuries, death and chronicle diseases due to polluted environment. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 37% of back pain is occurred through workplace hazards. This hazard is also liable for 13% of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), 16% of hearing loss and 10% each of injuries and lung cancer, 11% of asthma and 2% of leukemia (Omicsonline.org. 2018). However, the health and safety concern can be occurred due to several departments present in the oil and gas refinery.

Technical Building- Ince et al. (2015) depicted that the main function that the technical building is performing are technical meetings and comprises of offices for engineering and technical staffs. However due to presence of oil particles and hazardous gaseous substance, the hazards like prolong sitting, Slips, trips and falls occurred frequently (Omicsonline.org. 2018).

Plant inspection- Debenest et al. (2014) stated that the main operational functionalities of the plan inspection unit is to evaluate power plants, and offsite equipment. The hazards that people working in this unit is facing are noise, slips while climbing to the chambers and exposure to the biological animals like snakes (Omicsonline.org. 2018).  

Staff Canteen/Kitchen- Ezejiofor (2015) depicted the view that the unit for staff canteen or kitchen is liable for preparation cooking or meal of staff, storage of raw food and items and serving of meals to staffs. The hazardous risk that is occurred in this department is mechanical accidents, Food contamination, fire and explosion, industrial relations problems, high human traffic and awkward work positions (Omicsonline.org. 2018).

The Power Plant Unit- The main responsibility of the power plant unit are to operate the start-up and shutdown of boilers, maintaining turbine generators and their auxiliaries, controlling the boiler water and steam parameters and oil generation  (Wood and Wollenberg 2012). The environment of the refinery is liable for raising the health and safety hazards of cold, heat, noise, chemical leakage, explosion, trips and falls (Omicsonline.org. 2018).

The Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit- The main working liability of this unit is conversion of heavy diesel oil and vacuum gas oil into the FCC, LPG and Light Cycle along with cracking of heavier hydrocarbon (Jung et al. 2014). However, the main safety hazard that occurred is chemical hazards, stream exposure, heat, noise and skips and trips (Omicsonline.org. 2018).  

Waste Water Treatment Unit- In oil and gas refinery, the main work in this unit is receipt and treatment of all forms of waste water like sanitary waste, process plant, kitchen, power plant and drainage tanks. The health hazard that is occurred is prolonged standing/standing, vehicular movement, exposure to chemical, exposure to water (sewage) borne pathogens and insect bites (Omicsonline.org. 2018).

Chemical Warehouse- The working procedure of this unit includes issuing transferring and delivering of chemicals, recanting and stacking of works, transferring of empty drums and office documentation (Marmo et al. 2013). However the health hazards that are usually occurred in this unit are Vehicular Movement, Exposure to Chemicals and noise and heat (Omicsonline.org. 2018).

Fire, Safety and Environment Section- Joly (2012) stated that the main functionality of this unit is to conducts regular inspection of work, ensure proper disposal of waste, Pollution Control and inspection of purchased material. The health and safety hazard that is noted in this unit are exposure to biological hazards, slips and falls of the employees, vehicular movement, heat and noise (Omicsonline.org. 2018).

Oil movement, pumps and pipelines- The functionality of this unit is loading of refined petroleum products, loading the vessels at the jetty and receipt of crude oil from the flow stations (Hua et al. 2012). Thus, the main health and safety hazards are inhaling chemicals, inhalation of hydrocarbon vapors, prolonged standing, slips from climbing, noise, cold and heat, fire and explosion (Omicsonline.org. 2018).

Crude tank farm and old refinery- Debenest et al. (2014) highlight that the main function of that this unit is performing are draining of water from the tank and receiving crude oil from shell bonny. Moreover, production of kerosene, diesel, naphtha, fuel oil from the explored oil and this is made up of the Crude Distillation unit (Jung et al. 2014). However, both places are the highly risky place to work due to the safety hazard of inhalation of hydrocarbon gases and fall and slips due to frequent climbing (Ezejiofor, 2015).  

In recent times that in 2018; the refinery that is liable to produce 3 to 5 million liters of petrol has been shut down. The reason is the problem in Crude Distillation Unit (CDU), Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU) and Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU) (BusinessDay 2018). However, group general manager Public Affairs Division of the Port Harcourt, Ndu Ughamadu stated that the problem is not on these units but the problem faced is due to power problems. In addition to that, it has been found that if the Vacuum Distillation Unit (VDU) is properly functioning, steam have to be come out of the unit but it was not occurred.

Allegation of not developing poor environment for living  

Joly (2012) stated that PORT Harcourt Refining Company Limited, PHRC is liable for destroying public health that resulted in suffering of various ailments. However, PHRC have taken initiative of implementing Cooperate Social Responsibility and from the program total of 3,000 persons were benefited. The PORT Harcourt Refining Company Limited reported that their oil and gas installation are protected and is safe for the environment but due to bad and outdated equipments the efficiency of the working procedure is not obtained especially when compared to the report t hat the concerned organization is providing

It was found that the concerned organization PORT Harcourt Refining Company Limited did not follow ‘Public Procurement Act’. An investigation was followed after the allegation on finding whether or not the organization have selected AGIP/ENI as their preferred entities to repair and maintain the outdated equipment in PORT Harcourt Refining Company Limited (Guardian.ng 2018). In Nigeria, the government recently has formulated agreement with AGIP to construct a $15 billion refinery (Guardian.ng 2018). The concerned organization shows that they have selected AGIP in accordance to support their government. However, there is a lack of transparency and reporting procedure.

According to the details of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, there were total of 94 break points out of which the PORT Harcourt Refining Company Limited refinery was liable for 45 new pipeline breaks (Thisdaylive 2018). The report also shows that the figure of pipeline breaks has been increased from 49 downstream pipelines to 94 from February 2017 to March 2017 (Thisdaylive 2018). Thus, the record shows that within a month the percentage of vandalized pipelines has been increased to 91 (Thisdaylive 2018).

The legislation for oil refinery was established in the year 1997, Petroleum Act of 1977. This legislation had some legal issue that is yet to be resolved and this is the reason that the petroleum refineries are suffering also in recent times. The government has decided to give the liability of the refinery to responsible hands. This section some of the reasons due to which the challenges for the health and safety concerns has been in increased in the concerned organization.

One of the activities that the managers have been taken is not sharing report with the other officials. The Nigerian company Port-Harcourt when decided to build a refinery of 150,000 barrel capacity for which they have asked for concession (Guardian.ng 2018). It has been found that the officials have not shared their past records with transparency to the government as they have not maintained the equipment event they know that proper maintenance is required for obtaining the recent objectives of the refinery and oil needs (Nwajiaku-Dahou 2012). These managerial knowledge gaps also enhance the welfare gap in Port-Harcourt refinery.

In the year 2016, militants attacks more than twice in a week in oil refinery. The group hit the same pipeline again so as to destroy the operational functionality of the refinery (Anifowose et al. 2012). However, the sources stated that the reason for the militant to attack in the refinery is that they want to destroy the illegal refinery in Nigeria and the other reason is that these militants desire to improve the lives of the local people, who have never been get the benefit of the oil and gas profits (News24 2018). Nigeria in total have huge pipeline network shown in red in the image:

The attacks in some location also resulted in leakage of oil or oil spillage in sensitive locations (Anifowose et al. 2012). The militant’s continuous attacks are one of the reasons of the Vandalism of the pipeline. In the last ten years, there are 15,000 cases of pipeline breaks due to attacks along with over 400 cases of fire explosions (News24 2018).

It has been found that the refinery sector of the oil and gas industry is a low profit sector. Nigeria was considered to be the leader in the oil and gas extraction nation as there are many oil industries available. However, prior some period, oil mills have been discovered in UK basin that resulted in low price of oil which impacted the profitability scale of the Nigerian oil and gas industry. Thus, the low profit that is attained resulted in low financial resources sanctioned for the maintenance of the oil pipelines and unit (Tribune 2018). It has been found that prior to the year 2014; Port-Harcourt refinery produced oil and sells it $100 per barrel that has reduced to $30 per barrel (Daily Trust 2018). This collapse of the price resulted in serious economic crisis.

There is huge corruption in Nigeria where the politicians and police officials taken their profit obtained from the oil and gas industry. Politicians and police people are aware of the condition of the pipelines but they have not taken any steps for maintaining the pipelines of other unit so as to improve the working condition of the refinery (Today News Africa 2018).  Wilson (2014) furthermore stated that oil has been stolen from the refineries and as a result there are 13 illegal refineries in the Nigeria that has been running from the stolen oil. In April, 2017, there were total of 400,000 barrels stolen from the refinery (Tribune 2018). This leads to poor profit and lack of maintenance of the pipeline or workplace environment (Today News Africa 2018). This furthermore results in more accidents in pipelines.

Q1. How important is the health and safety matters to you in refinery?

First manager- The workers working in the Port-Harcourt refinery spent a huge proportion of time in the refinery. Thus, it is important in every oil and gas industry to maintain the drilling floor, shale shakers, mud pits/tanks and chemical mixing station/room. The condition of the roof along with underground functionalities should have to maintain weekly in order to identify any risk regarding safety.

Second Manager- The health and safety measure should have to be properly addressed in order to maintain their well being. The more the workers are safe, the more they can work for obtaining the organizational objectives. Moreover, any mistakes in the oil refinery resulted in greater hazards like fire explosion.

Third Manager- The main works that the refinery worker performs are drilling using dry product, shale dryer maintenance, sweeping or moving sand, abrasive blasting and hydraulic fracturing. All these functions resulted in inhalation of dust particles, accidents in body parts and noise. These cold damage their ability and can prevent them for continuing with their job responsibility. Thus, worker’s safety and health concern is important.

Q2. What according to you is the probable reason for the poor health and safety condition in your refinery?

First manager- The reason for which the health and safety issue mainly raises is due to poor political condition of the nation. The politician should have taken more initiative to maintain the most important source of nation’s income in order to grow the economic growth. However, the corruption nature of the politicians results in further loss in the profitability.

Second Manager- Apart from the corruption nature of the politician it is important for the organizational officials to look on the condition of the equipment. This is because, the working procedure is under their investigation and they are responsible for the maintenance of the machinery. Many times, these officials overlook this importance or intend to avoid the factor of investing huge financial resources on changing part of the refinery in order to upgrade the same.  

Third Manager- The main reason is the continuous militant attacks due to which after some days, the equipment get affected by the attack. This will also lead to the poor condition of the workplace environment. The attack also lead to the risky living condition and some of the worker also died in this attack that furthermore hampers the workforce an overall productivity.

Q3. What will be your future step to overcome the challenges in health and safety concern of your refinery?

First manager- The plan is for changing the machinery so that the worker can feel ease in accomplishing their daily job. A plan has to be formulated for sanctioning the budget for the same. Effective regulations also have to be prepared so that they can be followed effectively to perform the organizational functionality.

Second Manager- The planning for employee official’s training is planned so as to overcome the problem of challenges in health and safety concern. This training will help them to know about modern technology that is implemented in the oil refinery. A plan for the resources and budget will be premeditated for including all the necessary equipments and consultancy with the oil and gas experts so that relevant

Third Manager- The organization is planning for the protection system within the workplace so that the plant can survive the attack of the militants. Inclusion of governing bodies will also be planned so that strict action against them can be taken to improve the working condition within the refinery.

Research Question 1: What is the present condition of the refineries in Port-Harcourt Refinery, Nigeria?

The present condition of the Nigerian refineries is in a pathetic condition. Through the literature review it has been found that the equipment used in the refineries are established years ago and is not maintained properly due to lack of expertise. Another reason is that the actual plan was established by the owners, who are not in operation in recent times and the new owners have less knowledge in the functionalities of these machineries. This is the reason when the new technology has been arrived; the new managers are unable to find the required places that can be changed by new technology. The government though have taken the initiative to call the owners and asked about the working functions of the machines and assess the performance in order to identify which area to send for renovation and modernization.

In addition to that, the government also overlooks the maintenance procedure of the oil refinery unless some major accident does not occur. The data from the chapter 4 shows that some politicians are corrupted and do not sanction the financial resource for the maintenance of the equipment of the refineries. This corruption leads to the establishment of illegal refineries in Nigeria. This development of illegal refineries furthermore resulted in oil theft and the research data shows that in Nigeria, there are 13 illegal oil refineries in recent times. The literature review also shows that due to distance and poor environmental condition, educated people do not come to Nigerian oil refineries as a result less educated people are offered with managerial responsibilities and they failed to identify the serious issue in the plan. This is one of the major reasons for the rise of risk in health and safety management in these refineries.

Research Question 2: What are the challenges faced by the management in Health & Safety of refineries in Port-Harcourt Refinery, Nigeria?

There is risk in working any department of the oil refinery. The section of research data shows that in the unit of technical building, due to the presence of oil particles and hazardous gaseous substance, problems like prolong sitting, slips, trips and falls occurred frequently. The unit of Plant inspection, people faces hazards like noise, slips while climbing to the chambers and exposure to the biological animals like snakes. However, risk is greater when staff canteen/kitchen is considered as it need fire to cook and this might result in mechanical accidents, fire and explosion and food contamination. The unit of power Plant is liable for raising the health and safety hazards of cold, heat, noise, chemical leakage, explosion, trips and falls. Moreover, it is also found from the research data that the fluid catalytic cracking unit is responsible for the hazard of chemical hazards, stream exposure, heat, noise and skips and trips. Chemical Warehouse is another major unit of oil refineries and Vehicular Movement, Exposure to Chemicals and noise and heat are the major health hazards that occurred in this unit. The exposure to biological hazards slips and falls of the employees, vehicular movement, heat and noise is occurred in Fire, Safety and Environment Section. Lastly, in the unit for oil movement, pumps and pipelines and Crude tank farm and old refiner, health and safety hazards of inhaling chemicals, inhalation of hydrocarbon vapors, slips from climbing, noise, cold and heat, fire and explosion are common factors that can rise.

However, some additional challenges faced by the management are damaged equipment that can avoid accidents, allegation of not developing poor environment for living, concession cancellation due to lack of transparency. This transparency lack was found when the Port Harcourt refinery proposed to open an additional refinery and said that they have selected AGIP/ENI for support; however, when government did the investigation they found that the Public Procurement Act has not been addressed and the organization is not interested to publish all the actual data. Moreover, due to the breakage of 94 break points out of which the PORT Harcourt Refining Company Limited refinery was liable for 45 new pipelines breaks, employees and workers working in this refinery have to suffer a lot. The literature review shows that every year hundreds of people died due to unsafe working condition in the refineries.

Research Question 3: What are the possible reasons for the current conditions of the management in health and safety in Port-Harcourt Refinery in Nigeria?

The possible reasons for the current conditions of the management in health and safety in Port-Harcourt Refinery in Nigeria is lack of managerial effort as they are less knowledgeable regarding the importance of safety regulation and safe working conditions. Another reason found to be in research data is the continuous militant attacks and the number shows the detail of 15,000 cases of pipeline breaks with over 400 cases of fire explosions in oil refineries. The low price of the oil and incompetence and corruption is also a reason fir the low maintenance of health and safety hazards. The establishment of 13 illegal refineries in the Nigeria and oil theft resulted in low profitability as a result the health and safety factor are omitted by the organization’s officials. Through the interview data it has been found that the mangers also depicted that the poor political condition of the nation, dilapidated condition of the equipment and continuous militant attacks are the reason for the breakage of the pipelines due to which several accidents were occurred that hampers the living condition of the workers and lead to many death.  

Conclusion and recommendation 

Conclusion

Objective 1: To critically examine the present conditions of the refineries in Nigeria

The present condition of the Nigerian oil refineries are in poor condition as the officials have less knowledge in maintaining the refinery equipments. One of the reasons for their less knowledge is lack of education and assistance of experts. The literature review showed that educated experts are less interested in Nigerian refineries due to less benefits and poor environmental conditions. The new owners of the refinery do not communicate with the old owners and this is another reason for less knowledge of the machineries. Thus, these official are not able to make the decision whether or not the machineries some change. The corruption among the officials and governing bodies resulted in development of illegal refineries, militant’s attacks and fire and explosions. This resulted in low profitability in the organization and less financial resource allocated for the maintaining the health and safety factors for the employees. The data result also shows that every unit of the oil refinery has some risk to work and hazards like slips, falls due to presence of oil everywhere, inhalation of poisonous gas, biological animal’s bites, fire and explosion and falling of machinery parts on worker’s body. The militant’s attack is due to the running of illegal refineries and no benefits given to the local people from the benefits that the oil companies are making.

Objective 2: To identify the challenges faced by the management in health and safety of refineries in Port-Harcourt Refinery, Nigeria

The main challenges that he official of the oil refineries are facing is the death of workers. Every year hundreds of people died due to poor working condition. Every unit of the oil refinery is not safe and the probability of occurring hazard is high. Low profitability due to oil theft and corruption of the political bodies are more challenges that the management are facing. Due to low profitability, the managerial bodies do not show interest to enhance the safety concern for the workers and due to this result many worker died due to poor working conditions. The regular explosions and spillage of oil in the water bodies also hamper the health of the local people. This results in death of babies, less human life and scarcity of workers.

Objective 3: To investigate the possible reasons for the current conditions of the management in health and safety in Port-Harcourt Refinery, Nigeria

The most important reason is lack of experienced management and lack of clear definition of lines of authority. There are no strict rules to follow the developed regulations due to which the safety concerns are not followed properly. There are several legislations followed in the Nigerian oil and gas industry like Labour Act and applicability of common law, The Local Content Act, The Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act, The Petroleum Act and The Petroleum (Drilling and Production) Regulations. These regulations are for the safety concern of the workers working in this industry. Howver, no report have been [prepared that can show the evidence that these legislation have been addressed. This is the reason when Port Harcourt oil refinery gave the proposal for opening new refinery of daily capacity of refining 150,000 barrel per day; the governing bodies asked for Public Procurement Act that the concerned organization could not show.

Other reasons are customization of owner specification requirements, ineffective material management plans and lack of appropriate risk analysis expertise due to which breakage of oil pipelines occurred. The less knowledge among the officials do not allow them to identify the risk through accurate risk analysis tools. The communication method is also not string that they can communicate with experts regarding the risk. The plans and the equipments are also outdated and need to be replaced by high end machinery that is incorporated with new technologies. Continuous militant attacks are also a reason for the dilapidation of the machinery parts which cause health issues to the workers during working hours. The attacks also results in explosion in which many workers died.

Objective 4: To recommend suitable methods to overcome the problems faced by the Port-Harcourt Refinery

It is important to handle the oil and gas sector by educated people, who have the knowledge of handling the operational functionalities with greater efficiency. People selected from other nation for the oil and gas refinery should be given more benefits so that they can agree on taking the responsibility of Nigerian refineries. The greater benefits given to the managers also allow them to work for the organization with full effort. The government can also provide them challenging roles and responsibility for the refinery so tat hey can take some initiatives to maintain the working condition in the refinery.

Apart from the educated managers, other officials of the organization need to provide the training session on developing effective working condition in the refineries. The training session must also include the risk assessment classes so that these officials can implement the knowledge in analyzing the effectiveness within the workplace. This approach will help them to identify the risk or issues in the initial stages in the refinery to avoid major problems.  

Nigerian oil refinery should have to develop effective communication tools and approaches so that the officials can be in contact easily. In this way, the officials can share their concern with experts of other nation from oil and gas industry and make them aware of the recent technology that can also be utilized in Nigerian refinery.

The government needs to take step for designing strict legislation for the organization regarding the worker’s safety. This regulation have been formulated in presence of the organization’s officials so that they can clearly understand their rules in maintaining the rules. Government should impose high compensation value on the organization if any worker gets affected during the working hours.

The entire journey has been very promising for me. Through this research project I have not only learned about the different things about completing the project but it also helped me in developing myself as a person. Starting from selecting the research topic for my dissertation to the relevant method for collecting the data, I have learned about decision making skills. This will help me in prospering in future life. The topic for the research portrays my course and interest and I have learnt to select only those things that can interest me. This process will me help to complete the work with more effectiveness as I will have the motivation to go beyond.

I have also learned about the importance of the communication skills and its effectiveness in conveying my messages to others. I have discussed problem related to the research and its content with my mentor and also talk about other problem like how to find relevant resources and complete different section of the research with classmates. I have learnt how to express myself in a correct manner so that the person in front of me cam understand my queries without giving any extra effort. Through this process I have developed effective interpersonal relationship with them.

The idea that I possess on my research topic is that the only reason for the poor condition of the oil refineries are improper maintenance of the equipments. However, my research allowed me to identify supporting factors that can raise this issue like political conditions, overlooking nature of the managerial bodies, militant’s attacks and corrupted politicians. Though this process I have also improved my decision making skills for selecting only the reacted factors that can influence the health and safety concerns in the oil refinery. My mentor has helped me in selecting necessary articles related to the research topic. I can also utilize this knowledge in developing other research work during my academic life. I can effectively select relevant data from authentic sources. Another thing that can help me in accomplishing future research work is the knowledge of research methods that I have obtained. I have learned that not all research project follow the same research methods and the knowledge will help me to get a better understanding of the research scenario.

There were sometimes when I have not received help from others. Initially I felt dejected but later I have started acquiring knowledge by selecting appropriate methods to gain the knowledge. I have faced challenges in initial stage but later gain the ability to find relevant things that can help me in accomplishing my goals. I think this lesson will help me in my growth for both the career and in person. Thus, I can say, now I am able to continue this research on other industry or can also conduct other research based on other topic. However, the decision-making skills and developing interpersonal relationships with others will help me in my future workplaces also. 

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