Knowledge Management for Operations in the Oil and Gas Industry in Vietnam: An Empirical Study on Effective and Reliable HAZOP Assessment

Offshore oil and gas (OO&G) production rigs aim to explore and exploit crude oil & gas from seabed to surface rigs then transport to shore or storage tank facilities. Due to operating offshore, these rigs face various risks and hazards (ISO 19901, 2015; ISO 17776, 2016), hence two critical subjects: Risk Management (RM) and Operations Management (OM) are always particularly focused on. Among methods to identify engineering HAZard and OPerability (HAZOP), a qualitative method named “HAZOP Assessment”, or “HAZOP Study” has become a mandatory procedure for risk identifications of any OO&G rig (EU Directive, 2013; James G., 2015; DNVGL-RP-N101, 2017). HAZOP Studies are formal systematic and experienced-based examination focusing on engineering intentions of new or existing systems to evaluate the hazard potential of mal-operation or malfunction of individual systems’ items which can be consequential effects on the complete system(s) (IEC 61892, 2016; DNV-SE-479, 2021). Dennis N. (2016) reported that 80% of projects' hazard analysis processes were conducted via this method.