Industry collaboration launched to improve safety standards through innovative digital courses

A new collaboration that brings two major operators together with a leading energy e-learning firm is aiming to raise standards and improve training levels across the UK and wider North Sea oil and gas sector.

The joint venture between Spirit Energy, Neptune Energy, and Norwell EDGE will deliver a digital Well Integrity training programme based around Oil and Gas UK’s (OGUK) well lifecycle guidelines and Norwell EDGE’s own technical e-learning technology.

The training will enable the leading North Sea Operators to deliver a standardised course of e-learning for Well Integrity, similar in concept to the Minimum Industry Safety Training (MIST) across their international workforce. The goal of the collaboration is to help boost knowledge and standardisation in safety-critical areas such as Well Integrity, with the hope that additional operators will join the initiative over the next 12 months.

Willem Boon von Ochssee, Principal Well Engineer at Spirit Energy said: “The benefits of a wider programme of Well Integrity training is something Spirit Energy has been promoting for a while now and, with the change in how we are all working, we recognised the need to accelerate the move to a digital platform.

“The idea for a ‘common’ Well Integrity programme satisfying the OGUK guidelines came out of a Well Integrity Workgroup discussion and it was something we were very keen to see move forward. We hope that by improving access to Well Integrity training and promoting the concept of standardised Well Integrity training it will positively impact the ability of our personnel to work safely and help keep our wells safe.  It’s encouraging to see companies coming together to collaborate on this project. Everyone involved is working to provide course material, content and assure each topic satisfies OGUK’s lifecycle Well Integrity guidelines. We’re all on the same page that this is an important initiative which has been needed for some time.”

Until now, Well Integrity training has been tackled by operators independently, commonly in a traditional classroom setting using tried and tested PowerPoint presentations. However, with the world leading Well Integrity guidelines available in the UK and following the recommendations of the OGUK wells forum, this collaboration will seek to leverage the best in new training technology to harness major benefits such as cost and time efficiency, promotion of industry best practice guidelines, boosting user engagement and knowledge retention, and taking concrete steps to assure a minimum standard of knowledge is held in Well Integrity across the workforce.

The e-learning approach will harness the latest digital training techniques and will blend a variety of teaching methods including micro-learning, animation, video, quizzes and 3D virtual game scenarios to significantly boost user engagement and knowledge retention when compared with traditional methods.

The digitisation of the programme will allow operators to ensure personnel can easily access consistently high quality Well Integrity training no matter where they are in the world, regardless of whether they are working from home or their workplace and at a time that fits around other work demands.

Mike Hartley, Well Integrity TA, at Neptune Energy, said: “The course gives professionals who were unable to access specific well integrity training a tool that they can rely on to boost their knowledge and, as a result, take a more active role in the assurance of well integrity. We are hoping that this will become a resource that all operators can tap into to improve competency across our industry.”

“We can also adapt the training easily to different job roles, those that are “Safety Critical” vs a simple desire to gain some knowledge in an area that personnel have not had any experience in. It allows our personnel to complete their training at a time and place that works for them, especially when it is impossible to give training to all the required personnel in a classroom type scenario, at the same time due to offshore rotas.”

The innovative Well Integrity training will enable learners to complete courses at any time, in any location, and remain accessible to learners long into the future. It will allow operators to build up a database of personnel who have completed the training that can then be seamlessly integrated with HR systems and shared with other partners as needed. Courses can sit on the central Norwell EDGE training platform or be held by each company. This flexibility was identified as key to ensuring the success of the initiative.

Mike Adams, Co-founder of Norwell EDGE, said: "This type of initiative is exactly what should be happening in our industry, operators coming together, collaborating on projects to pool resources for an end product that will have current and future benefits across their organisations and the wider sector.

"Well Integrity is a highly technical subject that historically has been difficult to raise awareness across large numbers, but we hope that with this programme the industry will be able to harness a number of different options to boost awareness and technical standards across wells, operations and production teams.

"E-learning really opens up these types of opportunities, ensuring consistency in delivery, flexibility, and increased accessibility. This is something we have been focused on for a long time and are passionate advocates for the benefits that e-learning can bring to technical oil & gas subjects. Our focus is on keeping those costs down for operators and ensuring maximum flexibility, something we are in a fortunate position to do due to our extensive in-house expertise both in both e-learning development and the technical subjects we focus on.

"It is also great to see OGUK guidelines and Forum recommendations being taken up by operators for a wider benefit. This is why these organisations exist, and collaborations such as this are a great step forward for the industry."

Development of the courses is underway and will be delivered across three phases, the first an introductory series of three modules giving personnel an introduction to wells from the ground up. The second phase will include seven detailed Well Integrity modules that are designed to boost overall awareness and give a solid foundation in the key Well Integrity principles. And finally, the third phase will be where Operators can specify company-specific requirements around their own Well Integrity management systems.

Read the latest issue of the OGV Energy magazine HERE.