How we work

Existing and maturing structures, plant, equipment or systems, which could either cause, or contribute to, a major accident, should be managed effectively to prevent failure or limit its consequences.

Most of the EI's asset integrity technical initiatives support the upstream petroleum industry. The EI technical deliverables support the GB HSE Energy Division's Key Programmes 3 and 4 (Asset Integrity and Ageing and Life Extension) by providing good practice in key integrity management issues to drive continuous improvement in major accident hazard management.

Find corrosion management training

The work of the EI's Aviation Committee is essential for the safety of over 100,000 air passenger flights globally every day. Guidance, fuel specifications and videos are all produced to assist the downstream industry in the reliable and safe provision of aviation fuel to commercial aircrafts.

The majority of the technical work is conducted by the following sub-committees: Aviation fuel filtration; Equipment; Operations; Hydrant systems and Supply chain fuel quality.

Key topic areas include:

• Filtration systems
• Fuel handling equipment
• Fuel quality

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The EI takes a leading role in researching the impact that biofuels may have in the distribution chain, with various EI committees overseeing the development of applicable guidance.

To achieve the targets set by the European Directive 2003/30/EC, which promotes the use of biofuels or other renewable fuels to replace part of the diesel and petrol sold in EC Member States, biofuels may be made available in several forms. We lead the development of biofuel quality test methods to ensure good fuel quality where biofuels are used.

EI biofuels publications cover:

• Distribution and marketing operations
• Environmental analysis
• Assessing microbial growth
• Appropriate quality test methods

Given the resurfaced interest in Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS) as a means of climate impact reduction, the Energy Institute CCUS work programme addresses technical challenges/issues to ensure the safe deployment of the technology.

The EI CCUS portfolio builds on the previous Energy Institute work developed a decade earlier on major hazard analysis and good practice in plant design and operations for onshore and offshore CCS installations and facilities, the programme also covers topics like flow assurance, pipeline repurposing and pipeline failure mode mitigation.

Electrical issues affect all aspects of upstream and downstream petroleum industry operations, including:

• the classification of hazardous areas
• selection and inspection of electrical and electro-mechanical equipment
• the control of potential hazards due to static electric discharge
• the assessment of electrical supply protection.

The EI's Electrical Committee coordinates research in these subject areas, manages a broad guidance portfolio, represents the industry on national and international standards committees and contributes to enhancing the competence of electrical practitioners working on petroleum installations.

The EI is a world class leader in test method development, developing and publishing international standard test methods (known as IP Test Methods) for petroleum and related products. These are used to support government regulations, custody transfer, quality control and international petroleum product specifications globally.

The EI Test Method Standardisation Committee works closely with international standards agencies, including CEN, ISO and ASTM and in many cases publishes jointed methods (as dual numbered IP/ASTM test methods or as BS 2000 series methods for EN/ISO test methods). Covering fuel, lubricants, bitumen and crude oil testing and analysis, these standards are referenced by regulatory authorities and in various Ministry of Defence (MoD) product quality control specifications.

Many IP test methods underpin product quality requirements which have an impact on safety and the environment, in both shipment and use.

To assist laboratories in demonstrating data quality and integrity in use of the test methods, the EI also coordinates a range of correlation schemes for testing and analysis to support required laboratory quality assurance (QA) systems.

Join an EI Correlation scheme

The Hazardous Area Classification Working Group maintains the internationally accepted Model code of safe practice Part 15: Area classification for installations handling flammable fluids (EI 15) and related research initiatives dedicated to hazardous area classification for flammable atmospheres within the upstream and downstream industries.

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The Health Technical Committee (HTC) advises industry on all health issues relevant to the international energy sector. This includes the health aspects of employees, customers and the public who may be impacted by the activities and products of the industry.

Membership includes the HSE, the British Occupational Health Research Foundation and Oil and Gas UK. HTC members are generally registered medical practitioners, certified occupational hygienists, or senior medical professionals within their organisation.

Key areas covered by the HTC's work programmes include:

• Industry medical issues
• Occupational health
• Occupational health provision
• Air quality and emissions

Hearts and Minds is a toolkit intended to help organisations to improve their HSE performance by:

1. Leading the way - the 'route to the top' of the HSE culture ladder.
2. Providing the process and tools to get everyone involved and to facilitate behavioural change - the necessary components of a solution. The Hearts and Minds Toolkit enables you to create a truly inclusive, proactive and generative approach to HSE management.

This state-of-the-art toolkit was developed by Shell E&P, based upon 20 years of university research, and is now being successfully applied in companies around the world, thanks to a publishing agreement between the Energy Institute and Shell E&P.

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Human and organisational factors can impact on occupational and process safety performance. The EI has one of the largest collections of human and organisational factors resources available in the world. Best of all, we make these resources freely available.

The EI Human and Organisational Factors Committee (HOFCOM) engages industry and stakeholders by commissioning studies, sharing knowledge and providing human factors tools.

Current and recent issues covered by HOFCOM's work include:

• Human factors training
• Fatigue management
• Risk assessment
• Accident investigation
• Workforce involvement

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At various stages during the extraction, transportation, refining, storage and distribution of petroleum and its products, there are requirements to measure its quantity and quality for allocation, custody transfer and fiscal purposes, as well as for stock control and loss prevention.

To enable the oil industry and regulators to carry out such measurements in a standardised manner, the EI Hydrocarbon Management Committee (HMC) develops and issues guidance documents that reflect current industry good practice.

Several petroleum measurement standards are developed jointly with the API, particularly relating to marine transportation, and the EI HMC is committed to the production of international guidance through its position, through BSI, as secretariat to the ISO TC28/SC2 Measurement of petroleum and related products.

The EI HMC manages the work programme covering:

• Upstream
• Refineries
• Marketing and distribution
• Cargo inspection
• Bulk oil transportation measurement activities

Options to decarbonise the energy system include hydrogen and its derivatives (e.g., ammonia) as energy vectors. The Energy Institute's good practice hydrogen work programme considers the value chain from the various means of hydrogen production through to its different uses. The focus is independent technical and techno-economic research and good practice development, conducted collaboratively with engagement from global operating companies, policy makers, regulators, consultancies, service providers, academia, trade associations and like-minded stakeholder organisations.

The deliverables of the hydrogen work programme should inform decision making by policy makers, enable developers to de-risk projects and provide the basis for safe and sustainable hydrogen value chain operations globally.

The hydrogen work programme focuses on aspects of process safety, asset integrity, environmental assessment (lifecycle analysis), plant design (e.g., filling stations), quality determination (e.g., fuel cell quality) and quantity determination.

Tripod is a theory for understanding the human factors aspects of incidents and accidents. It was developed to explain how and why incidents happen and allow the root organisational causes and deficiencies to be uncovered and addressed.

There are two main Tripod tools:

• Tripod Beta - an accident/incident investigation methodology
• Tripod Delta - a proactive analysis tool to help prevent future incidents

Enrol in an accredited Tripod Beta Practitioner training course to improve your skill as an incident investigator.

For further information and a full list of training courses visit www.tripodfoundation.com or contact tripod@energyinst.org

Find Incident Investigations & Analyses using the Tripod Beta methodology training

The EI's offshore safety resources focus on the operation of different installation types and wells, and the design and analysis of equipment. Using these resources should help duty holders to better manage the safety of offshore installations; in particular, major accident hazards.

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G+ is the Global Offshore Wind Health and Safety Organisation that brings together the offshore wind industry to pursue shared goals and outcomes. It is run in partnership with the Energy Institute, which provides the secretariat and supports its work.

The G+ publishes yearly incident data to establish the industry risk profile and determine where efforts should be focused to improve health and safety performance. From this, Good Practice Guidance is developed and Safe by Design workshops held.

Find out more at G+

SafetyOn is the health and safety organisation for the onshore wind sector.

Providing leadership in health and safety for the dynamic and innovative onshore wind industry, we ensure transparency about the industry’s H&S performance, as well as assisting industry stakeholders to see that key emerging risks are mitigated through co-operation and shared learning.

Working through the Energy Institute, SafetyOn is an open network of safety and health experts, professionals and stakeholders promoting a strong, sustainable and continually improving health and safety culture. Thousands are employed in the UK’s onshore wind industry, and SafetyOn is playing a part in making sure they go home safe.

Find out more at SafetyOn

The EI's Distribution and Marketing Committee and Distribution and Marketing Safety Committee develop technical guidance for issues involved in the supply of fuels to customers. Their work ensures we safely receive all the different petroleum products we need in the right place at the right time.

These committees include senior technical managers from the major oil companies operating in Europe and technical representatives from UK trade associations.

Resources primarily cover equipment used and procedures followed for:

• Bulk storage
• Vapour recovery
• Road tanker operations - covered by the Road Tanker Panel (RTP) and Distribution Contractors Panel (DCP)
• Filling stations - covered by the Service Station Panel (SSP)

In 2012, the EI became the sponsoring organisation for the Petroleum Enforcement Liaison Group (PELG); we provide Secretariat support, but are not formally represented on PELG. PELG aims to facilitate an appropriate and consistent enforcement by as petroleum enforcement authorities (PEAs) through the development of the Red Guide and PETELs.

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Effective management of health, safety, environment and quality (HSEQ) are key to providing a secure power generation industry. The Power Utility Committee (PUC) is a cross-industry group dedicated to improving HSEQ in the power generation sector. It focuses on cross-sectoral issues, such as ensuring competence and good management, as well as sector-specific issues, such as combined cycle gas turbines, biomass and electrical power cables.

The manufacture, handling and use of dangerous substances are major hazards - not only to workers, but also to members of the public nearby, assets and the environment. Process safety considers these major hazards and assesses how to control them; in particular, by containing dangerous substances and pressurised systems and keeping them under control.

Effective process safety management should minimise major accidents such as fires and explosions. The EI's Process Safety Committee commissions research and provides guidance on process safety issues.

EI process safety publications cover:

• Process safety management framework
• Leadership
• Risk assessment
• Risk management
• Review and improvement

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Toolbox puts safety in your hands.

Toolbox is free to use. It holds incident lessons and safety information shared by global energy companies for you to use at work every day, helping you and your team to get home safe.

Use Toolbox on your smart phone, tablet or laptop. You can browse content by work activities or high risk situations. Save content for quick access from ‘My Toolbox’ or use offline when you have no internet connection. Like and share content with your colleagues and change the way you work, one day at a time.

Developed by the Energy Institute (EI), Toolbox quickly connects you and other users around the world to health and safety insights from leading energy companies partnered with the EI.

Find out more at Toolbox