The RIO project (Interdisciplinary Risk Assessment in Integrated Operations addressing Human and Organisational Factors) aims at developing new knowledge (theories, models) and frameworks for reasoning, as a basis and platform for risk assessment in relation to petroleum production in an integrated operations (IO) environment, and to provide guidance on the practical use of these results to relevant practitioners in the petroleum industry.
The key question to be addressed in the project is how to assess and express risk in an IO environment by an interdisciplinary approach.
The project is sponsored by the PETROMAKS program of the Norwegian Research Council; the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority; and the Center for Integrated Operations in the Petroleum Industry at NTNU. The project period is 2008-11.
The work is carried out in close cooperation between NTNU, MINES ParisTech and SINTEF.
Integrated operations (IO) can be understood as new work practises in the petroleum industry that are based on information technology and digital infrastructure to enable concepts such as increased capture of offshore performance data; use of real-time data to monitor and manage operations across geographical and organisational borders; use of collaborative technology to link different actors in a more efficient and closer way; and access to expert knowledge.
Altogether these properties result in tighter integration of technology, data, competency, activities and organisations. The general belief is that these IO concepts will provide “better, faster and safer decisions”, thus resulting in reduced operational costs; longer life-span; and accelerated and increased production. However, new opportunities and challenges for risk assessment and risk management arise in this IO environment, which is explored in the RIO project.
