New Tools, Old Tasks

​New Tools, Old Tasks explores how Integrated Operations (IO) will influence the safety of offshore drilling operations. The book is based on several years of practical experience combined with a research study on the safety of IO within the drilling domain. The overall objective of the book is to explore how safety can be understood in the change process of Integrated Operations, and to provide recommendations for how IO may be developed and implemented in a way that will benefit both safety and efficiency of the operations.

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A crucial thread throughout the book is that the understanding of normal work processes is key to understanding the conditions for safe operations. This is reflected in the book's structure and content; the nature of normal drilling operations is the focus, including how technologies and work processes are aligned to meet the dominating challenges of the industry (these challenges need not be directly linked to safety/risk). It is argued that the influence of IO on the safety of drilling operations depends more on how IO relates to the existing fundamental challenges of drilling operations than on the design and properties of the different IO technologies and work processes as such

Contents: Preface; Introduction; Drilling in action: two short stories; A brief introduction to integrated operations; Drilling for oil and gas; Safety of sociotechnical systems and sociotechnical work; Methodological themes; Integrated drilling operations as sociotechnical systems; Articulation work: revisiting the case of mud losses; Chasing shared understanding: revisiting the case of divergent depth measurements; Challenging controversies - a prospective analysis of the implications of integrated operations; New tools, old tasks: discussion and conclusions; References; Index.