Oil and Gas HSE Management and Major Hazard Control Training Course

Course overview

Oil and gas operations carry major-accident potential that cannot be controlled through generic safety programmes alone. Loss of containment, well-control events, ignition sources, toxic releases, marine spills, simultaneous operations and degraded safety-critical equipment demand disciplined management of process safety barriers. HSE leaders and operational specialists must be able to distinguish personal safety indicators from major-hazard controls, challenge weak assurance evidence, and make defensible decisions when production, maintenance and risk controls compete.

This course equips participants to build and apply an integrated HSE management approach for upstream, midstream, refining and petrochemical operations. Participants use the ISO 45001 and ISO 14001 management-system frameworks alongside HAZOP, LOPA, bow-tie analysis, barrier management, permit-to-work review, management of change and emergency-response planning. They learn to define major accident hazards, identify safety-critical elements, assign barrier performance standards, select leading and lagging indicators, investigate high-potential events, and convert findings into practical risk-reduction actions.

Delivery combines instructor-led technical sessions with realistic oil and gas cases involving hydrocarbon release, confined-space work, SIMOPS and environmental spill scenarios. Teams examine operating information, construct a bow-tie model, test control effectiveness, and present risk-based recommendations to a simulated asset leadership team. Each participant leaves with a completed Major Hazard Control Action Plan, including a barrier assurance matrix, leading-indicator set, MOC decision checklist and 90-day implementation priorities for their own facility or project.

The course is designed for experienced HSE, operations, maintenance, engineering and project personnel who influence risk controls in facilities where a failure can escalate beyond an individual injury into a major accident or environmental event.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Differentiate occupational safety metrics from process safety indicators for major-hazard operations
• Develop a major accident hazard register using credible release, escalation and consequence scenarios
• Facilitate a bow-tie analysis that identifies threats, preventive barriers, recovery barriers and escalation factors
• Apply LOPA principles to test whether existing safeguards achieve tolerable risk
• Define safety-critical elements and write measurable barrier performance standards
• Audit permit-to-work, isolation and SIMOPS controls against barrier-management requirements
• Evaluate management-of-change requests using risk screening, technical review and authorization criteria
• Produce a site-specific Major Hazard Control Action Plan with assurance activities and leading indicators

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• HSE Managers — who need to integrate process safety, occupational safety and environmental controls across an asset or business unit
• Process Safety Engineers — who lead hazard studies and must convert technical findings into operational barrier assurance
• Operations Superintendents and Supervisors — who authorize work, manage production constraints and control SIMOPS risk
• Maintenance and Reliability Managers — who maintain safety-critical equipment and need defensible impairment and assurance processes
• Project and Commissioning Managers — who must manage major-hazard risk through design changes, handover and start-up
• Environmental Managers and Emergency Response Leads — who prepare for hydrocarbon releases, spill escalation and consequence management

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical exposure to oil and gas, refining, petrochemical, pipeline, terminal or offshore operations, ideally through an HSE, engineering, maintenance, operations or project role. Familiarity with basic risk assessment concepts, permit-to-work systems, incident reporting and the hierarchy of controls is assumed. Participants should be able to read a simple process flow diagram or work-pack information and discuss operational controls in their own area. Prior HAZOP or bow-tie experience is helpful but not required. No specialist software licence, mathematical risk-modelling background or formal process-safety qualification is required.

Training methodology

The instructor uses asset-based scenarios rather than abstract HSE examples. Short technical briefings establish the method, followed by guided work on PFD extracts, permit-to-work samples, barrier registers, maintenance evidence and incident data. Small groups complete a HAZOP-style deviation review, build a bow-tie in BowTieXP, assess safeguards using LOPA logic, and test an emergency-response decision sequence. Facilitated peer challenge mirrors an asset risk-review meeting. On the final day, participants convert their case findings into a prioritized 90-day action plan for their own operation.

Course outline

Day 1: HSE management systems and major-hazard governance

• Major accident hazards across upstream, midstream, refining and petrochemical operations
• Occupational safety versus process safety performance measures
• ISO 45001 and ISO 14001 management-system integration
• Risk appetite, ALARP principles and tolerability criteria
• Major hazard register structure and scenario definition
• Roles, accountabilities and HSE leadership at asset level
• Leading and lagging indicators for process safety performance

Workshop: Participants review a fictional terminal's incident and maintenance data and produce a prioritized major-hazard dashboard with proposed leading indicators.

Day 2: Hazard identification, consequence analysis and bow-tie controls

• Loss-of-containment pathways and hydrocarbon release scenarios
• HAZOP guidewords, deviations and safeguard identification
• Task-based risk assessment and its limits for major hazards
• Bow-tie structure: top events, threats, consequences and barriers
• Escalation factors and escalation-factor controls
• Safety-critical elements and barrier ownership
• Barrier performance standards and verification criteria

Workshop: Teams build a bow-tie model for a condensate pump seal failure and produce a barrier register with owners and performance standards.

Day 3: Process safety assurance and operational control

• Layers of Protection Analysis screening and independent protection layers
• Safety integrity concepts and demand-rate reasoning
• Permit-to-work, isolation and energy-control interfaces
• SIMOPS planning and control-of-work conflict management
• Safety-critical maintenance, testing and impairment management
• Management of change triggers, screening and authorization
• Contractor control and interface-risk assurance

Workshop: Participants assess a proposed maintenance-and-production SIMOPS plan, identify barrier gaps and produce an authorization recommendation with conditions.

Day 4: Incident learning, emergency readiness and environmental protection

• High-potential event classification and process safety event tiers
• ICAM-style causal analysis and failed-barrier mapping
• Learning from hydrocarbon releases, blowouts and fires
• Emergency response command structure and escalation decisions
• Oil-spill preparedness, containment and environmental consequence control
• Crisis communications and regulator notification decision points
• Assurance drills, tabletop exercises and post-exercise improvement tracking

Workshop: Teams investigate a simulated gas-release near miss, map failed barriers and produce corrective actions linked to emergency-response and environmental controls.

Day 5: Implementing a major-hazard control programme

• Baseline gap assessment against ISO 45001, ISO 14001 and process safety expectations
• Designing a barrier assurance matrix and verification schedule
• Selecting leading indicators for safety-critical barriers
• Risk-based audit planning and field-verification questions
• Action tracking, overdue controls and management review
• Communicating major-hazard risk to asset leadership
• Ninety-day implementation planning and stakeholder engagement

Workshop: Participants present a site-specific Major Hazard Control Action Plan containing assurance priorities, indicators, accountable owners and 90-day milestones.

Tools & standards covered

BowTieXP, ISO 45001:2018, ISO 14001:2015, IOGP Report 456

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions