The petroleum industry is backbone of the economic and financial development of any country. It not only helps the economic development but it also help the country to fulfil the energy requirements. The industry includes drilling, extraction and production of oil from the oil rigs. The onshore oil companies get the oil by drilling on land, while the off shore oil companies do it in the sea. The on shore and off shore oil companies are working to extract the oil in many parts of the world including the Middle-East. The Emirate of the Abu Dhabi is one of the largest oil producers in the world and it is currently exporting mainly to United States. The main petroleum companies are located in Gulf while the US, itself, is one of the largest oil producer.
The industry is very sensitive and critical for the development economy but it has issues with the environment. The industry is major contributor of carbon emission in the environment which is polluting the earth. The quality and safety standards are important in the petroleum industry to protect the environment from the negative impacts of the industry. In recent years, the petroleum companies are focusing on the concept of sustainable development and growth. The process requires the implementation of quality processes. The quality processes are implemented in the industry for safer operations.
The Company – ADCO
The Abu Dhabi Company for On Shore Oil Operations is part of ADNOC Group. The group is owned by the government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. ADCO was formed in year 1978 under Law No. 14 of Abu Dhabi but its operations were actually started in 1939 when the concession agreement made with Petroleum Development (Trucial Coast) Ltd. The drilling work on the concession agreement was started in 1950 with the first oil discovery in 1950. The government of Abu Dhabi acquired 60% in the concession agreements in 1974. The company currently extract and produce oil from eleven oil fields. The company is exporting the oil from two terminals one is located near Ruwais while the other terminal is Fujairah.
ADCO has achieved many milestones both in terms of business management and development of operations. The company has adopted quality systems and management tools for operating effectiveness. It gets support on quality systems from the ADNOC Group corporate headquarters. It has quality policy to grow through sustainability where the harm to environment should be at minimum level. The mission of ADCO is to improve and maintain the quality standards especially in healthy, safety and environment. In order to fulfil its commitment towards health, safety and sustainable development it has entered into many partnerships. The sustainable development is the major purpose of the company. The company is not only committed towards business growth but it is supporting the government to Abu Dhabi against the vision 2030. The management of the ADCO ensures the safe, sound and continuous operations with the continuous growth and development by adopting the best practices of quality control and quality management systems. The operation efficiency and excellence has been optimized in the performance of the operations of the company to ensure growth and development.
Objective of Study and Data Collection Method
The objective of the study is to identify the quality system implemented in the organization and the analysis tools used by the organization. The other objective of the study is to evaluate and comment on the identified tools used by the organization.
The report has been prepared by using secondary data sources. The secondary data has been collected from the internet. The published journals and reports are available on the website of the company. The general information about the industry and tools have been taken from other published material which is available online.
Key Quality Processes
The company has implemented a quality policy of low level of accidents on the oil rigs operated and run by the company. In order to achieve its policy the company has implemented a system of health, safety and environment which is unmatched in the oil and gas industry. The management practices the growth through integrated sustainable development. The health, safety and environment are the core areas and issues addressed by the company. The company comply with the local requirements of the United Arab Emirates, as well as, it comply with the international regulations, laws and ADNOC codes of practices. The international standards and best practices in the quality are implemented at every stage of the operations of the organization wherever appropriate. The operating systems of the organization are uniquely defined and integrated with the quality management practices of the organization which ensures that no accidents takes place on the sites run by the organization. The issues identification system is highly competitive and it gives up-to-the-date information to the management. The employees including the managers, supervisors and employees are all accountable to work for the health, safety and environmental systems of the organization. The following are the analytical tools used by the organization to implement quality policies and to prevent accidents on the sites operated by the company:
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Pareto Diagram
The Pareto diagram is the special diagram which is used by the company for prevention of problems in health, safety and environment. The chart identifies the problems, as it is said that the major causes of accidents are only few key things. In order to avoid the accidents the company can identify the causes using the Pareto Diagram. The Pareto is one of the major tool used by ADCO.
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Scatter Diagram
The scatter diagram is another quality tool which has been used by the Abu Dhabi Company for On Shore Oil Operations. The tool can be used to show the relationship between the paired data and it can provide the most useful information. The two paired data can be the reason of the accident and the machine which is damaged. The company is using the tool to check what the cause was and what the effect of the accident is.
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Histogram
ADCO is using histogram to improve the quality processes. The histogram takes the data that is collected from a process and then display it graphically. The distribution of the data is important and the specification are written against the data. The histogram is useful to check the trends and the problems caused by any specific reason.
Analysis of the Quality Tools
- The Pareto Diagram is helpful tool for quality implementation. The company can improve the systems by using Pareto Diagram properly. The company can put the data and draw useful information from the Pareto Diagram. The company can identify the few causes which are the reasons of major accidents. On the other hand, the tool is not useful because over time the few problems will change and the individual processes with the organization takes preference. Although, there are some shortcoming of the tool but it is still useful tool for quality processes.
- The scatter diagram is helpful tool but it not useful when the relation between the data is not proper. There might be other reasons of accidents and the scatter diagram cannot be drawn based on the data. The scatter diagram is still useful tool for the oil and gas exploration companies where the variable causes are not more.
- The histogram is useful quality tool to find out the reason for the difference, for example, the difference in production between line A and line B. It can be used to eliminate the difference and standardized the production. It can determine how the more production from the line A and how to move towards the centre of the specification centre. The company can use it to check machinery, workers and work methods. The tool can be combine with other decision making tools to improve the quality in system.
Conclusion
The quality is one of the major aspect of oil and gas industry especially in terms of health, safety and environment. The quality management tools can be used by the organizations to prevent the problems in the operations and production in the oil and gas industry. It can be concluded that the Abu Dhabi Company for On Shore Oil Operations is using the valuable quality tools to prevent the accidents and avoid the problems in the processes. The company is regarded as one of the best quality company which has successfully implemented a system of quality by adopting international standards and by following the local laws. The quality tools such as Pareto Diagram, Scatter Graph and Histogram are successfully used by the company to find out the main reason of problems in the areas of health, safety and environment. It can further be concluded, from the research, that the tools discussed above are very effective and these can be used by the organization to achieve the level of total quality management which is the ultimate desire of any organization. As there are some limitations of using the tools individually, so these tools can be used with other decision making tools to make the decision about the quality processes.
Reference
About Us. (2015). About Us. ADCO,
Sustainability Report. (2014). Sustainability Report 2014. ADCO Sustainability Report: Issue 2014.