We strive to achieve process safety excellence and work continually to reduce the likelihood and potential severity of process safety events.

This involves applying best practices in the design, use and maintenance of our equipment and planning every stage of our operations with safety risks and the hierarchy of control in mind.

Our approach

We base our process safety requirements on industry best practice including the Framework for Process Safety Management developed by the Energy Institute, and implement them through our business management system (BMS).

Our process safety commitments and requirements are set out in our Corporate Major Accident Prevention Policy. We report and investigate all process safety events and identify ways to prevent recurrence, in line with the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) Tier 1 and Tier 2 definitions. Our goal is to achieve process safety excellence across all our operations.

Looking ahead

We will continue to emphasise process safety and major accident prevention including:

  • continuing with our major accident hazards awareness internal training programme for onshore and offshore personnel, which includes site-based and virtual reality modules;
  • embedding process safety leadership principles across our organisation; and
  • embedding the IOGP Process Safety Fundamentals into our key procedures.
Field verifications

Harbour has adopted field verification as a key supervisory assurance process, focused on high-risk work activities. A field verification has greater depth than a permit audit and involves the review of procedures and documentation associated with an activity, followed by an open discussion with the work party about the activity, including planning and execution.

Each field verification is linked to Life Saving Rules and Process Safety Fundamentals. We expect all our onshore leaders to carry out field verifications during offshore visits. The process has been embedded in our North Sea business and work is underway to develop electronic field verification data analytics to improve leading safety indicators. We have now rolled out field verification procedures and guidance internationally.

The IChemE Training and Development Award

In 2022, Harbour Energy won the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) Training and Development Award for its process safety programme, which uses immersive virtual reality to raise awareness of major accident hazards and the potential of process safety events.